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There is an overwhelming force which accompanies the Williams sisters. I | :00:50. | :01:00. | |
should know. TRACY AUSTIN: This must be so | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
difficult for Lindsay Davenport. First, there is the power. Brutal | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
serving, vicious groundstrokes. You hit it hard - they hit it back | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
harder. Next, there is the speed. They are athletes, not quite as fast | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
as years gone by. But if you think they are past it, get real! And | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
that's the point - to them, experience is no enemy. It's their | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
best friend. They have been there, done it and won it all. You know it | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
- and they know you know it. You might think you've got the best of | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
them. Maybe. Maybe not. Sure, they are beatable - everyone is. But | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
trust me, it's more than a game when you're up against Venus or Serena. | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
They are an amazing family and they have set new standards for everyone | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
to follow. Here are the scenes at 10.30 this morning when the gates | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
opened. What an orderly queue heading down to Centre Court! It is | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
ladies semifinals day, and for the first time since 2009, we have the | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
two Williams sisters in the last four. Both of them still have a bit | :02:17. | :02:25. | |
of work to do, and will have to be at their best if we are to see a | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
repeat of 2016. Playing Venus is the German fourth seed Angelique Kerber, | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
which has already won the Australian Open this year and has not dropped a | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
set in this year's tournament. Russia's Elena Vesnina is the other | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
semifinalist. She produced some of the performances of her career to | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
reach the last four. Venus has five Wimbledon singles titles to her | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
name. Can she add an improbable sixth at the age of 36? Serena is | :02:58. | :03:05. | |
chasing her seventh singles title, and Steffi Graf's total of 22 Grand | :03:06. | :03:16. | |
Slam victories. We know that all the action will unfold on Centre Court | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
as far as the ladies semifinals are concerned. In the first match, | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
Serena, playing her 32nd Grand Slam semifinal. It is a first for her | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
opponent, Elena Vesnina so. And then Kerber takes on Venus Williams. | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
Kerber has the head-to-head advantage, but this is a whole new | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
Venus. So, this is the scene on Centre Court at the moment with half | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
an hour to go until the players walk out. Tracy and Lindsay are with me. | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
It feels special on these big days. We heard you there. Anyone who has | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
played for the last 16 years, has had to face one of the Williams | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
sisters. They have really transformed the game, haven't they? | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
They have, and more so on this than any other surface. The Williams | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
sisters came along, with their powerful groundstrokes, taking balls | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
early, they shifted women's tennis away from having to be a | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
serve-volleyer, like Martina Navratilova did. It is still grass | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
tennis but it is different. They have done it perfectly over the last | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
16, 17 years. Especially Serena, she can turn defence into attack | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
immediately. Absolutely. She has only lost serve six times in the | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
tournament. It puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. Her serve | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
is the best in the game. As we have seen many times in Majors, Serena | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
has got better and better. The number of aces is starting to mount. | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
She is hitting the ball so cleanly. She has so much confidence. When she | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
gets to this stage of a Major, she grows in confidence. And she hasn't | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
seemed a bit more calm here than she has seemed at the French or at the | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
Australian. Somehow when she gets here, she just believes. I mention | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
that it was her 32nd Grand Slam semifinal. What a difference for her | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
opponent today. Saving herself for the Majors? Yes, and that is really | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
smart for Serena. It is all about trying to get more Grand Slam | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
titles. Sadly for the other parts of the world, they probably will not | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
see her quite so much playing some of those tournaments. Her age, and | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
with the injuries she has had, she needs to tailor her schedule. It is | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
all about days like today, Grand Slam semifinals. Hopefully getting | :05:50. | :05:56. | |
up towards 25 or so Grand Slam singles titles. Are you enjoying our | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
summer? This is absolutely phenomenal, a little hot! The first | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
week it was wet. And the second week, sonny. Perfect. This is your | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
summer. You know who to blame, don't you? Carol?! Absolutely! Carol is | :06:11. | :06:19. | |
waiting for us. I was listening to you this morning, and you were | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
talking about rain. Is it going to spoil the singles matches to date? | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
There is likely to be some interruption later on. I just wanted | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
to say, I have always liked Tracy, she is such a star. Although we are | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
basking in lovely sunshine at the moment and it is lovely and warm, | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
more cloud will be building throughout the afternoon. Late | :06:46. | :06:54. | |
afternoon into the evening, we are looking at the risk of shower. But | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
it will go through quite quickly. Tomorrow, we will start off cloudy | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
and wet. However, it is an improving picture. By about two o'clock, we | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
will find that the sun will come out and it will be pleasant, with gentle | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
breezes and temperatures up to 21. The weekend is looking a little bit | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
more interesting. We have got a weather front on Saturday heading | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
south. At the moment we think that ring bearing weather front will be | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
just to the north of London. But it might come further south. -- rain | :07:27. | :07:33. | |
bearing. If you stay out of that rain, it will be bright. It will be | :07:34. | :07:41. | |
leaving us on Sunday, with a blustery day, some sunshine and also | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
some showers. Sue, I learned from you yesterday, blustery is not good. | :07:46. | :07:54. | |
No, it makes it more difficult for the players as well, with the ball | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
moving around. We have had awkward bounces - that's enough. We have a | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
royal visitor here today, the Duchess of Cambridge, arriving to | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
take her place in the Royal Box. She has always been a big tennis fan. | :08:08. | :08:14. | |
She has played tennis, along with her sister Pippa. Meeting | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
representatives of the armed services. We have spoken about how | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
they have been on duty all around the world and they volunteer to come | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
here as stewards. It is different from other Grand Slam Scott Tracy? | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
Absolutely, and that the history. I remember that lady who had flown | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
Hurricaness. It is really quite special to honour them. The Duchess | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
of Cambridge meeting one of the wheelchair athletes. | :08:46. | :08:59. | |
And that is the Williams sisters' mother as well. She never seems to | :09:00. | :09:16. | |
get nervous. She always keeps a smile. She really has been amazing. | :09:17. | :09:27. | |
She has been through everything with them. My favourite quote of hers. | :09:28. | :09:35. | |
She was asked, what are you going do tomorrow? She said, I think I might | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
go shopping! It really is lovely. Sam Stosur is there as well. | :09:44. | :09:56. | |
That is the Duchess of Cambridge, who will be enjoying the tennis here | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
on Centre Court. We're going to start our preview of the Brive | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
semifinals, starting with Venus Williams. I say it is a bit of a | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
Hollywood movie story, because it is incredible how she has come back | :10:12. | :10:14. | |
into the world top ten. She suffered illness with an autoimmune disorder. | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
And here she is in the semifinal, at the age of 36. | :10:20. | :10:33. | |
Been here around the block, a couple or 20 times! To be here this long, | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
you have to want it. Every point is tough. | :10:40. | :10:51. | |
COMMENTATOR: Venus Williams is the champion for the fifth time here at | :10:52. | :11:02. | |
Wimbledon! I still feel 26. You have this thing inside you which feels | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
like you can go for ever. It is the most incredible story, isn't it? It | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
really is. To come out of cotton, coach by their father, who did not | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
even play tennis, just learnt it from videos. To become world number | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
one, have this great career, and then in 2011, letting us know that | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
she had this illness, and still coming back and fighting. Now back | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
in the Wimbledon semifinals after five or six years. She is always | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
going to be a threat on this surface. It is just fantastic. She | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
has really had to struggle in some of her matches. Three sets in some | :11:40. | :11:47. | |
of them, and rain delays. And she has been playing doubles as well. | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
They have not played doubles in three or four years. But they will | :11:51. | :11:57. | |
be in Rio. And also today, in the quarterfinals, against Vesnina, of | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
all things! The illness, it is fatigue and joint pain - everything | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
you need to be a tennis player. It shows her passion and love of the | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
game. It is, and she is not as demonstrative with her emotions as | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
Serena is. We probably did not realise how much Venus actually | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
loved it. And here she is, 36, it is already tough on an athlete's body. | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
The wear and tear gets athletes a bit sore, not able to train as much, | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
and then having to deal with this syndrome which makes it even harder. | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
It is really remarkable. And for a great champion like Venus, and it | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
has now been seven years since a Grand Slam semi, and a lot of times | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
the media is so quick to write these players of. And she has refused to | :12:48. | :12:54. | |
buy into any of that. She will not believe it, she is on her terms. And | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
this is why. She believed she could get back to this moment when I give | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
her so much respect for that. She was not listening to the negative | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
comments about her. And she is back with another chance at a Grand Slam | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
final. I think I was one, because I just felt we would not see her back | :13:13. | :13:16. | |
here at this stage of the tournament again. Often we have seen champions, | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
when they start to have a bit of a slight, they do not enjoy it, losing | :13:22. | :13:24. | |
to players they have never lost to before. Even this year, she has not | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
had a fantastic year. She won tournament in Taiwan but did not | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
beat anybody higher ranked than 60. She look good last week. She did. | :13:37. | :13:48. | |
This was a good match for Venus because she is a problem solver. We | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
were a bit worried about fatigue, because she was in the doubles as | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
well. Venus actually was down 5-2 in that first set tie-break. And she | :13:58. | :14:11. | |
did not lose another point to! Today, she will take on Angelique | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
Kerber of Germany. It is a big day for German sport. Do you know who | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
they play in the Euros? Of course we knew that! France! I know who you | :14:20. | :14:28. | |
guys lost to! Iceland! They are known for their foot or! They are | :14:29. | :14:38. | |
now! Germany take on France, and Germany as a representative here. We | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
really need to hear from a German icon. So, cue The Hoff! | :14:42. | :15:32. | |
That might be the biggest surprise of the day! And his singing prowess! | :15:33. | :15:40. | |
Memorable songs from The Hoff. This is Angelique Kerber, ActiveSync out | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
on court today. I mentioned it is Germany against France, live on BBC | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
One this evening. The Australian Open champion, Angelique, is feeling | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
confident, as she told Rishi Persad. You are through to your second | :15:56. | :16:10. | |
semifinal here at Wimbledon - how well do you think you played in the | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
quarters? It was a tough match against Simone. We are both playing | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
really good tennis and I think it was a really high class match. But I | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
am really happy about my performance. I am playing really | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
tough and trying to move in good and be aggressive. It was actually not | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
so bad. It is better than that - you are the only player still left in | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
the women's straw who has not dropped a set. Of course, I mean, it | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
is always good to win matches in rev sets. But I think every single match | :16:40. | :16:48. | |
I played here was different, and I was trying to play better from match | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
to match, and of course it is good to be in the semis without dropping | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
a set. You won the Australian Open earlier in the year, but you say | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
you're playing your best tennis right now. Why is that? Actually I | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
think I have a lot of confidence. I know how to play on grass, I know | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
how to win against Willie good players. Semifinal against Venus | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
Williams - you have had some exciting matches against her? That's | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
right. And it was always tough and really close. I played against her | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
here in the Olympics for years ago and she's always a dangerous | :17:21. | :17:23. | |
opponent, especially here at Wimbledon on grass. But I am looking | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
forward to playing against her again. I think it will be a good | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
match. And I will give everything to beat her. She has the experience, | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
doesn't shethe Australian Open champion, Lindsay, she has done it | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
before? Yes, and that is huge. Also a Grand Slam champion, as you said. | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
That makes a difference in the belief of a player. This is probably | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
the worst surface for curb to play Venus on. I think it helps Venus's | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
shots more and gives her more confidence. But winning a Major, not | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
having dropped a set, and physically she is in such great shape, she | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
moves so well, Kerber. If she can get enough balls back, keeping it | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
really low, either with her slice or her flat ground strokes, that will | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
be lower for Venus which will be really important today. She could | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
not get a bigger contrast from whom she beat in the quarterfinal, Simona | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
Halep. There were so many rallies in that match, and 13 breaks of serve! | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
Yes, that match was all about receiving and returning. Kerber was | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
broken sick times -- six times in that match. I think today she will | :18:38. | :18:43. | |
need to get a lot of first serves in, because her second serve can be | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
attacked. I think being a left-hander could help her on this | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
surface as well, because of her slice. Kerber is so great. Look at | :18:52. | :18:58. | |
her positioning. When she stays close to the baseline, she will not | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
knock you off the court with power, but she can absorb pace and she | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
retrieves so many balls. You feel she could last for five hours, if | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
need be. We'll fatigue be a problem for Venus? The other thing is, at | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
28, she is a lot more experienced. She is a late Bloomer. She was | :19:22. | :19:29. | |
probably a bit overwhelmed when she got to the semifinals here before. I | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
think she will be having a lot more belief in herself as a tennis player | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
now, especially after winning the Australian. I think she will try and | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
make Venus move as much as possible, using the angles. A globals, slices, | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
angles. She cannot afford to get broken so many times as she did in | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
the previous match, however. -- low balls. Yesterday was one of the | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
greatest days in the history of the Championships. First of always on | :19:59. | :20:00. | |
Roger Federer with his amazing comeback against Marin Cilic. And | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
then Andy Murray survive the brutal test against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. In | :20:05. | :20:11. | |
the fifth set, it was Murray at his finest. | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
ANDREW CASTLE: Just getting his engine running here. He has got the | :20:20. | :20:30. | |
ball on a string. He has not lost a set at the Championships - yet. He | :20:31. | :20:49. | |
is not out of this match it. We are going the distance is caught. | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
JOHN MCENROE: Beautifully done by Murray. What a return! That is it, a | :20:56. | :21:05. | |
victory for willpower. When the match is going on, Ivan Lendl does | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
not show much expression. But how much are you enjoying having him | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
back in your corner? I am happy to have him back in my team. When it | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
was first announced, as I said, I think he makes my team stronger. The | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
work I have done with Jamie Delgado to get me to the place that I mean | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
just now has been excellent. And hopefully, having Ivan around, and | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
his input over the next few days, it will be able to help. Tomas Berdych | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
has got a pretty good record here at Wimbledon, but it has been awhile | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
since he has beaten you? Yes, we have never played on grass before, | :21:43. | :21:46. | |
but he has made the final here before, he has beaten Djokovic and | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
Federer on the grass. He is obviously playing some good tennis | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
this week. I have only seen a little bit of his match from the fourth | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
round, which he came through in five sets. Is a big guy, hits it hard. I | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
will need to be on my game, for sure. Well, it will be Murray | :22:08. | :22:15. | |
against Berdych tomorrow. And we will look forward to both of those | :22:16. | :22:17. | |
semifinals. They could be quite special. Tracy, Lindsay, what a day | :22:18. | :22:26. | |
yesterday. The tennis was outstanding, but the drama was | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
second to none? Absolutely, what a great ticket to have. Roger going | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
down two sets to love against Cilic. You're thinking, is this going to be | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
a repeat of Cilic beating him wanting and does what a have that | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
extra gear? He has had knee surgery, back injuries as well. And the | :22:47. | :22:54. | |
crowd, wow! They fed him that extra energy which he needed. Cilic had | :22:55. | :23:06. | |
three match points, and what a fantastic story. It gives a chance | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
to possibly win the title. You can never count him out, absolutely. | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
Andy Murray, he got so tends towards the start of the fifth set and | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
really had to dig deep? Yes, and how big was that first game? I think | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
that's when he yelled up to his box, I'm not going to lose this match. | :23:24. | :23:26. | |
That seems to get him going as well. He started so well, did not play as | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
well in the third and fourth sets, but how he got it together?! He has | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
late great tennis. His level drops just a little bit, mostly due to how | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
well Tsonga was playing. You have to love the fire he had in the fifth | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
set. That was the difference in this match. Those first couple of games | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
in that fifth set, that was the key. Look at the standard - Tsonga was | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
white back to his best as well! He really was. He has a monstrous | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
serve, which came together in the third and fourth. Variety as well, | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
cracking that forehand. And Murray just scoop it up a notch. He used | :24:08. | :24:14. | |
the crowd. I just always felt in that fifth set that Murray had that | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
extra gear to go to, physically. Whereas Tsonga have a doctorate | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
issue at Roland Garros,, and I did not know if he could sustain his | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
level. I loved the quote from Roger Federer, he said, I thought, I | :24:32. | :24:39. | |
tried, I believed. I think we could all say, Roger Federer did not play | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
his best tennis, but he managed to get through. That will give him so | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
much confidence that he still got through this match. He just has too | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
hope that he will pull up physically OK. Raonic has looked ouzo fresh. I | :24:53. | :24:58. | |
just hope Roger tomorrow is feeling good, energetic, and most | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
importantly, healthy. At the press conference, he said, I'm going for a | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
very long Sarge full stop anyway, we are almost ready for the first of | :25:09. | :25:16. | |
our semifinals. -- very long Sarge. She's chasing her 22nd Grand Slam | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
win, it is of course, the world number one. | :25:20. | :25:49. | |
She is just in a league of her own. I was speaking to Milos Raonic. John | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
McEnroe saying he wants him to have more presence, more all right, make | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
himself felt on the other side of the net. No-one does that better | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
than Serena! Absolutely, especially when she is down. You do not even | :26:03. | :26:09. | |
feel your winning because she is so powerful, she has that well-deserved | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
presence because of how consistent she has been, particularly in the | :26:14. | :26:20. | |
last four years. She has just always been consistent, whereas some of the | :26:21. | :26:23. | |
others have had that trouble of doing well, winning a major and then | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
having a fluctuation in their results. It is really great to see | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
Serena at 34 still playing at such a high level. In so many matches, you | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
just feel, and she really needs it, there is an extra level. She was | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
struggling in that first set, they closed the roof, she came out and | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
did not lose another game. That extra level. She knows how to get | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
better and better as she plays her way through events. More than 30 | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
Grand Slam semifinals, 32, and Vesnina, only one. It is a huge | :26:55. | :27:10. | |
difference. Just an incredible career she has had? It has been, for | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
Serena, the longevity, the focus, still at 34 years of age. I'm not | :27:17. | :27:22. | |
sure yesterday was Vesnina's day of, she had doubles and mixed doubles. | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
Now, sometimes, she has really had no time to think about the singles | :27:28. | :27:30. | |
match until today. That can be better for a player, because they | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
can get too nervous. But this is the biggest match of her whole career | :27:36. | :27:38. | |
today. This is what she has practised for her whole life. | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
Yesterday, Serena would have been all business. Everything would have | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
been tailed towards that. Vesnina was playing doubles, back in the | :27:49. | :27:50. | |
locker room, mixed doubles... She has been frantic, but it's great to | :27:51. | :27:57. | |
see. She has been around for one of the most well liked players. | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
Absolutely, I saw her in the locker room yesterday's. Bruno Soares, who | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
she plays doubles with, he had that long match with Jamie Murray. So I | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
think he pulled out of that. Everybody in the locker room was | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
teasing her. Gosh, shame there is not more events you can enter! But | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
she seemed extremely relaxed. I said, you need to save some edgy for | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
tomorrow. But she has had an incredible and down. She said | :28:29. | :28:31. | |
winning the mixed doubles with Soares at the Australian this year | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
was the kick-start she needed. Vesnina was ranked 122 just this | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
last February. She was having to qualify for so many tournaments. | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
Finally in Doha, she beat Simona Halep and got to the quarterfinals. | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
She went to Charleston, started in the qualifying and got all the way | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
to the final, losing to Sloane Stephens. So she started to get some | :28:53. | :28:58. | |
belief. But it is quite a run. We never would have fixed Vesnina, at | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
50 in the world, to be in the semifinals. Certainly not. And we | :29:04. | :29:07. | |
can hear from her now. How would you sum up your emotions | :29:08. | :29:20. | |
as you head into the semifinals? I am happy and excited, I even had | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
tears in my eyes after this match, quite the final against Dominika. | :29:26. | :29:33. | |
Now here I am in the semifinal against Serena, and it is amazing. I | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
have been around for a long time, and it has changed for me now. I am | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
playing different, a more mature player, I understand the game much | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
better than I was understanding it seven or eight years ago. You have | :29:47. | :29:52. | |
to be more serious and more focused. Right now I am more serious and | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
focused, I know how to warm up, how to recover, and that gives you a lot | :29:57. | :30:03. | |
of pluses, little plusses, and your match game preparation as well. When | :30:04. | :30:13. | |
you see people like Kerber and Muguruza coming through, that must | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
give you hope that you can beat the domination of Serena. She has | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
dominated for a long time, she is a legend, but she is still a human | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
being. And that is a great attitude. She | :30:27. | :30:32. | |
says she is more serious and focused, which she will certainly be | :30:33. | :30:34. | |
at the moment. She is on her way from the locker room, and you know | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
that walk, it is nerve wracking. It is a long walk, you pass pictures of | :30:39. | :30:44. | |
former champions, the trophies. But I love that quote, she is only | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
human, she just has to look to last year's semifinal. She knows that | :30:51. | :30:51. | |
there is a chance. Here they come. Such a wonderful moment for Vesnina, | :30:52. | :31:20. | |
but Serena certainly looking focused and ready, got her game face on | :31:21. | :31:28. | |
again. This 22nd Grand Slam title has been so close since she left | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
here last year. Absolutely, and I think most of us were feeling the | :31:33. | :31:35. | |
way she was playing last year that by the time she came around back to | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
2016 that she would already have 22 in hand. And I think Lindsay you | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
made a terrific point, Serena last year losing in the semifinals to | :31:46. | :31:52. | |
Berta Vinci, and she was 4-0 against her, and it is the same thing here, | :31:53. | :31:59. | |
with Vesnina. And also known as a doubles player, as Roberta Vinci | :32:00. | :32:08. | |
was, too. How about that, Serena is just turning her phone off! Maybe | :32:09. | :32:16. | |
they were calling from the box. One more tip from Patrick! She has just | :32:17. | :32:23. | |
been in awesome form at these championships, the server | :32:24. | :32:25. | |
particularly has been good, hasn't it? 50 aces for a Serena, the most | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
of anyone out there. She is putting sunscreen on now. She didn't do that | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
before. She has needed to throughout these championships. But the first | :32:39. | :32:47. | |
serve, 90% against Pavlyuchenkova. She wins so many free points, it | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
gets the right of trouble in situations, but the second serve has | :32:52. | :32:54. | |
been more problematic for Serena this tournament, that potentially | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
could he a weak part of her game, but it is not necessarily the | :33:00. | :33:02. | |
strength of Vesnina to attack the week serve. She will have to do | :33:03. | :33:06. | |
something special today, because when Serena's first serve goes in, | :33:07. | :33:10. | |
the chances of winning the point are just so slim. It is very important | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
for Vesnina to have a quick start, because this could be a situation | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
where Serena starts quickly. She has been here so many times, she can be | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
like a freight train, she just takes over and it is so tough to get into | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
the match. We know she was a finalist last year in doubles and | :33:28. | :33:30. | |
two-time Grand Slam champion with Makarova, so we know she has played | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
an big stages, but it is different to play in the singles semifinals | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
against Serena, so it is important for her to get a quick start and | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
maybe bring some of those nerves. We have seen Serena bring some nerves | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
sometimes, we expected her to win the Australian Open, not Kerber, and | :33:50. | :33:57. | |
Muguruza beat her at the French Open, but she served extremely well | :33:58. | :34:06. | |
against Cibulkova, she hit to the corners beautifully with hard, flat | :34:07. | :34:10. | |
ground strokes, she moves well, she really just has to stay in the | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
moment, point by point, and not get overwhelmed with who was on the | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
other side of the net. Years ago, so much was expected of her, she was | :34:19. | :34:21. | |
expected to go way up to the top and didn't deliver. We see that | :34:22. | :34:27. | |
sometimes in women's tennis, the expectations. Pavlyuchenkova said | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
she wished she had never been the number one junior in the world, | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
because people are so quick to look for the next star, we don't | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
appreciate who the current stars. Vesnina got married last off-season, | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
she says that has helped tremendously this year. And Tracy | :34:44. | :34:52. | |
said it, she has made some great starts. She is amazing, and handled | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
this success, this tournament beautifully. It sounds like she has | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
the right attitude. Attitude and experience. The average age of a | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
first semifinalist is 31 years and nine months. Most of the time, back | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
a decade ago, and 30 19 months, they would be our when you will retire. | :35:13. | :35:20. | |
Or they were already retiring! Venus and Serena have done such a great | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
job of 36 and 34 of setting another standard, that you can play at this | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
level, at such a high level into your 30s if you want to. Sports | :35:29. | :35:34. | |
medicine has come so far, girls are fitter, they have the recovery | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
process, the ice baths, all of that, and therefore we are seeing | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
champions, and some people that are blooming at later stages in their | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
careers. And Serena, we talk so much about the serve, the return of | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
service strong. She has to get a high percentage of first serves in, | :35:52. | :35:57. | |
Vesnina. She does. I was looking at the service statistics, Vesnina has | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
a more powerful, by about three miles per hour, second serve. The | :36:02. | :36:07. | |
first serve hits the location is very well, and again, it is a | :36:08. | :36:11. | |
question of how she starts and how she plays, and whether she can | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
handle the nerves of the moment, and whether the moment overtakes her, | :36:16. | :36:19. | |
because for Serena, this is an everyday occurrence for her. And we | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
were talking a little bit about Patrick, he has been working with | :36:26. | :36:28. | |
Serena, and she gives him so much credit in the fact that he has | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
motivated her to get back and play the Grand Slams and be ready for the | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
big occasions. What an important move it turns out that was for | :36:36. | :36:38. | |
Serena back in 2012 to add someone new. They always kept a really | :36:39. | :36:46. | |
close, tight camp, and Serena Willie went out of the box and hired | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
Patrick, and he has made a world of difference to her. He got her to see | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
what she could still do and what she was laying for, to go down as the | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
greatest female player of all-time, and she wants that more than | :37:01. | :37:04. | |
anything. Sometimes she doesn't look that impressed, but you can telling | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
how she approaches these matches how much it means to her, and that is | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
Patrick's doing. When you get older, winning a Grand Slam is about | :37:15. | :37:16. | |
chasing a record, and she is desperate for this 22nd slam. And | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
she was asked, do you think about 22? And she said, and just thinking | :37:23. | :37:27. | |
about winning titles, the Australian, the French, Wimbledon. I | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
am not thinking about 22, and she wouldn't be thinking about that | :37:33. | :37:35. | |
today, because she knows Vesnina could be dangerous, and you don't | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
want to overlook any opponent. We thought we were already giving her | :37:40. | :37:45. | |
the final at the Australian last year when she took on Roberta Vinci, | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
and that gave her the shock. Thank you to Tracy and Lindsay, and | :37:50. | :38:01. | |
Lindsey is on her way to the commentary box to join John McEnroe | :38:02. | :38:03. | |
and John Inverdale. JOHN INVERDALE: Welcome, the sun is | :38:04. | :38:13. | |
shining down on Centre Court. This is a lifetime opportunity for | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
Serena, and is Vesnina clutching at straws to challenger today? But she | :38:18. | :38:31. | |
lost to Roberta Vinci last year. Good afternoon, Mr McEnroe. | :38:32. | :38:39. | |
JOHN McENROE: I would say that the victory. | :38:40. | :38:47. | |
And Lindsay, how are you? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Very well, thank | :38:48. | :38:59. | |
you. Two Johns! You are the rows between two thorns. How anyone head | :39:00. | :39:05. | |
you rationalise your chances of playing in a match like this? I | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
first of all take a very good look at the match of the -- tape of the | :39:10. | :39:15. | |
match you just mentioned, Roberta Vinci. She hits a flatter ball, | :39:16. | :39:21. | |
Vesnina, Identix pecked to be to do the things that Vinci did at the US | :39:22. | :39:32. | |
Open, -- I don't expect her. But she has appeared to be extremely wound | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
up in those matches she has lost, battling herself, trying to tie | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
Steffi Graf at 22, so I would be continuously telling myself, she has | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
never been here, so it is going to be hard not to be overwhelmed, but | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
she is on the best role of her life, and she certainly has got nothing to | :39:51. | :39:55. | |
lose. How do you play a match as though you were playing anyone in | :39:56. | :40:00. | |
the first round, when you look up and see the person that she | :40:01. | :40:02. | |
described as a legend, this persona, this aura? Viz being who has | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
achieved so much? How'd you take that out of the equation? It is | :40:11. | :40:16. | |
almost impossible, which is why it is rare to see these monumental | :40:17. | :40:19. | |
upsets from a player with not much experience. | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
APPLAUSE She needs to focus on the ball, | :40:25. | :40:27. | |
continue to breathe and try to remember all the excellent tennis | :40:28. | :40:30. | |
that you have played in this tournament to get you to this point. | :40:31. | :40:35. | |
And get off to a good start. So important to get the nerves out of | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
the system early. She is an accomplished doubles player, she has | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
been aggressive, trying to take it to Serena is hard to do. | :40:45. | :40:51. | |
APPLAUSE Huge applause for Serena Williams, | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
her 32nd Grand Slam semifinal. UMPIRE: This Nina to serve. Ready, | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
play. Serena will have perfected those | :41:02. | :42:06. | |
first two shots, in a way that no other female player has. | :42:07. | :42:23. | |
That is the first good solid blow that the Russian has landed. | :42:24. | :43:08. | |
One of Vesnina's problems if she doesn't win too many of those major | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
serves, and she hits the flat ball, that will be really nice for Serena. | :43:17. | :43:18. | |
That is what she wants. But if your natural game is to hit a | :43:19. | :43:34. | |
flat ball, you can't suddenly for one occasion invented new game. | :43:35. | :43:44. | |
And sometimes it is just a game of match-up to Mac. A pretty emphatic | :43:45. | :43:52. | |
start from Serena. Jimmy Connors had a flat all, and you could get a | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
groove on it, you felt like you are hitting great, he almost dead you to | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
trade ground strokes, and he was so good at it, the level here, the | :44:03. | :44:09. | |
experience here is so vast. It is almost something that she should | :44:10. | :44:12. | |
contemplate to try to do something different, because like Lindsay | :44:13. | :44:24. | |
said, it is a good matchup. She has won 80% on her first serve in this | :44:25. | :44:26. | |
championship. What is her career? It must be close | :44:27. | :44:32. | |
to that. In that last game, Vesnina hit her | :44:33. | :44:54. | |
second serve that 98 mph, much faster than the average, but she | :44:55. | :45:00. | |
still wasn't winning those points. One game put away. | :45:01. | :45:11. | |
Is good to be able to hold the serve until you need it. That is probably | :45:12. | :46:11. | |
the best second serve that she has hit so far. If she can put ten mph | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
more on the first serve, it will come at some point. If Vesnina knew | :46:18. | :46:25. | |
she was facing an uphill task five bits ago, it just got a little | :46:26. | :46:26. | |
steeper. Her legs are twice as heavy as they | :46:27. | :46:42. | |
normally are, she is so tight. Frozen, almost. She is unable to | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
really move around the court yet. And sometimes it doesn't matter how | :46:47. | :47:28. | |
well you play, if you are playing Serena, and she is locked and | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
dialled in like she is early in this match, she has the ability to just | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
completely takes a play out of her opponent's hands. | :47:37. | :47:48. | |
Well, that will make us feel a bit better. | :47:49. | :48:07. | |
APPLAUSE And that is what Vesnina has to do | :48:08. | :48:11. | |
right now, just go for big, high risk shot, just to win a point. | :48:12. | :48:21. | |
It is worth saying that Vinci did lose the first set against Serena | :48:22. | :48:29. | |
last year, which made what happened subsequently all the more | :48:30. | :48:29. | |
extraordinary. This is the situation that Vesnina | :48:30. | :48:53. | |
must have dreaded at the start. Roger Federer, who you will be seen | :48:54. | :49:25. | |
tomorrow, at this stage of their career, him and Serena, they have | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
been around a long time, still move well, but to me, neither one as well | :49:30. | :49:31. | |
as they did in their prime. You could make an argument that | :49:32. | :49:42. | |
Serena is going for the slam, she did pretty well there! Vesnina, 29 | :49:43. | :49:48. | |
aces for the tournament, she could use a bunch right now. | :49:49. | :49:58. | |
UMPIRE: Let, first serve. After the extraordinary goings-on on | :49:59. | :50:04. | |
Centre Court yesterday, as well. I'm sure the crowd here would love | :50:05. | :50:16. | |
Vesnina to make this a contest, but goodness me. This second serve not | :50:17. | :50:24. | |
going wide enough, right into the strike zone of Serena's forehand, | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
she didn't have to move a step there. | :50:29. | :50:38. | |
Was that one of the greatest days ever on Centre Court yesterday? I | :50:39. | :50:41. | |
think so. Roger found a way, and then Jo | :50:42. | :50:55. | |
really stepped up. I have never seen Andy Murray as excited as he was, | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
positive emotions. And the first chance we have had to say this, | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
congratulations on masterminding your man into the semifinals against | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
Roger! Doubtless you will be telling Milos but Roger isn't moving as well | :51:09. | :51:15. | |
as he used to, and that is the thing to do. Doubtless. When you play | :51:16. | :51:20. | |
against a player that good, you want to attempt, a lot easier said than | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
done, but Cilic was doing an outstanding job, taking the racket | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
out of his hands. But your guy has the potential to do that. | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
Definitely. So did Cilic. He had three match points, it looked like | :51:36. | :51:41. | |
the makings of straight sets. He played great, regrouped after | :51:42. | :51:45. | |
tightening up, on some of those shots, played a tremendous fourth | :51:46. | :51:52. | |
set, Roger hung around. A truly remarkable great, great effort. But | :51:53. | :51:56. | |
the other thing I would tell him, maybe this is a blessing in | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
disguise, the upside is tremendous when you play Roger, Fahey as well | :52:00. | :52:07. | |
-- for him as well, he is about 1035, maybe his body won't bounce | :52:08. | :52:10. | |
back as quickly as it did in the past. Here is your chance. You can't | :52:11. | :52:16. | |
tell Vesnina the same thing, though. I wouldn't be able to look in the | :52:17. | :52:20. | |
eye and tell her that. If you are telling Milos to accentuate the | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
upside, what is the upside here for Vesnina? She is on Centre Court at | :52:30. | :52:31. | |
Wimbledon! She is actually thinking of a way | :52:32. | :52:54. | |
not to be embarrassed in this match. There is a school where it comes | :52:55. | :53:00. | |
about not competing a 20 win, it comes about, getting a game soon. -- | :53:01. | :53:02. | |
there is a score. That is a very focused Serena that | :53:03. | :53:28. | |
you were talking about. So often you can see just by looking in her eyes. | :53:29. | :53:37. | |
Bad news for Vesnina, she has come out, started this match like a woman | :53:38. | :53:54. | |
Every club tennis player watching and listening to us at home will | :53:55. | :54:08. | |
emphasise with that. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, you stop thinking about the ball and | :54:09. | :54:11. | |
keep looking at the scoreboard. Please can I just have one? She | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
doesn't appear to be in a very giving mood, Serena. | :54:17. | :54:37. | |
Unfortunately for Vesnina, Serena is the opposite. She will want to see | :54:38. | :54:45. | |
two bagels on that scoreboard. That might be the key couple of words, | :54:46. | :54:53. | |
0-40 down. It won't matter a lot in this game, but hopefully down the | :54:54. | :54:54. | |
road, give her some confidence. She can feel the crowd is obviously | :54:55. | :55:05. | |
going to start pulling for her, especially early in the second set. | :55:06. | :55:21. | |
They played four times before, eight sets, all won by Serena, and | :55:22. | :55:32. | |
cumulatively, Vesnina has won 19 games across those four matches. | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
Statistics don't like, and at the moment, things are looking gloomy | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
for the Russian. Her normally smiling and brilliant face is deep | :55:44. | :55:45. | |
in concentration. APPLAUSE | :55:46. | :55:55. | |
That's more like it! We could discuss this ad nauseam if | :55:56. | :56:35. | |
it comes to pass, but how much does Serena want to play Venus in the | :56:36. | :56:38. | |
final on Saturday? That is a great question. Or not want to? | :56:39. | :57:09. | |
Most importantly, she is concentrating on getting to the | :57:10. | :57:18. | |
final. That was a huge punch from Serena Wright at the end. Actually | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
great defence from Serena. She doesn't need to do that so often. At | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
least Vesnina is starting to find her legs and move, she was frozen | :57:30. | :57:31. | |
the first few games. I only ask that question because if | :57:32. | :57:48. | |
Venus was to win the next match, and Serena lost this, how much would she | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
say, I would have given anything for that opportunity? She missed that. I | :57:53. | :58:00. | |
think for Serena, it is probably easier for her to focus if it wasn't | :58:01. | :58:06. | |
against her sister, but for her sister's sake, she once Venus to get | :58:07. | :58:09. | |
to the final. I don't know how they do it. You played your brother. We | :58:10. | :58:12. | |
played three times. I thought you would say how hard it | :58:13. | :58:25. | |
was emotionally. Venus handles it unbelievably well, | :58:26. | :58:43. | |
she seems to be Morra get -- more worried about Serena then Serena is. | :58:44. | :58:46. | |
Serena gets the job done and then she worries about Venus. I thought | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
you meant beating your brother, you would let him have a game. Nope! | :58:52. | :59:03. | |
APPLAUSE Got her on the board. | :59:04. | :59:11. | |
Three aces, as well. Vesnina hasn't played poorly. Serena is sharp. | :59:12. | :59:29. | |
There will be a huge cheer if she wins this point. | :59:30. | :59:53. | |
CHEERING A couple of nice doubles shots | :59:54. | :00:00. | |
there. It is that shout that this Nina | :00:01. | :00:17. | |
does, I guess it can be annoying to opponents if she is beating them. | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
Not bothering Serena a lot right now. When this -- Vesnina played | :00:23. | :00:31. | |
Cibulkova, that was quite a noisy match. You are thinking of | :00:32. | :00:38. | |
Radwanska. I meant Radwanska. In terms of Serena's longevity, | :00:39. | :00:46. | |
everybody was talking about, your average tennis career, think about | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
if you think about what is so amazing about Roger, but the fact | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
that he still desperately wants to be so brilliant, not just that he | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
is. And you could say the same about Serena. That is a great point. I | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
have never seen a guy love playing as much as Roger, and it plays off. | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
UMPIRE: Time. And in Serena I have never seen a better competitor, | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
someone who has come from match point down, match game down, sets | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
down, the Will she to win, the perfect example is when she his hard | :01:18. | :01:23. | |
to play her sister, she has been able to more easily overcome the | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
fact that they are siblings and just put that aside and get the job done. | :01:28. | :01:29. | |
I find that amazing. Incomplete control at the moment. | :01:30. | :01:55. | |
That serve, she starts to pop it... LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The big | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
difference for me with Roger and Serena, I feel like Roger is trying | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
so hard to win one more. I feel like Serena is trying so hard to win four | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
or five more and breaking the all-time record of Grand Slam | :02:10. | :02:17. | |
singles titles. JOHN MCENROE: I think the | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
best-of-five scenario makes it a lot harder for Roger to even think about | :02:21. | :02:22. | |
winning more than one. JOHN INVERDALE: For the motivation | :02:23. | :02:48. | |
is the same. With the push lately of players developing later, and | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
looking to win Majors at 21, 22, 20 three. When Serena started winning | :02:55. | :03:01. | |
Majors, she was still a teenager. Certainly it has helped her | :03:02. | :03:03. | |
accumulator a few more by being so good, so early. | :03:04. | :03:25. | |
Gueye Miss Williams. JOHN INVERDALE: Just the six aces so | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
far for Serena. Let's look at this positively. Hold | :03:32. | :04:08. | |
my serve here, and I will serve at the start of the second set. | :04:09. | :04:15. | |
Oh, yes! We are starting to see at least some inklings of how and why | :04:16. | :04:58. | |
she was able to get to this position, which is good news. At | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
least we might have a competitive match here in the second set. | :05:02. | :05:13. | |
She has never been known for her speed around the court. You throw in | :05:14. | :05:22. | |
the nerves, and it's making it awfully tough for her to track down | :05:23. | :05:31. | |
Serena Williams' pace off the ground. | :05:32. | :06:07. | |
It is an awful feeling playing any sport - why won't my body move, like | :06:08. | :06:31. | |
I know it can and it should and it normally does? Well, my last match | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
that I played on this Centre Court, that's how I felt a! I sort of felt | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
like Vesnina feels right now. I was playing a guy by the name of Andre | :06:42. | :06:44. | |
Agassi. It felt like no matter how good a serve I was hitting, my neck | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
started hurting so much, and it would go by me. My legs did not feel | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
like... Vesnina is 29 or 30, so she is probably... I don't think she | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
thinks this is the start of something. Oh, yes, now I'm going to | :07:03. | :07:10. | |
start getting to Grand Slam semis. This is her shot, in a way. It is | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
very hard not to allow the nerves to get into the mix as well. She is not | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
used to playing in an event like this. Lindsay, you were discussing | :07:20. | :07:28. | |
beforehand about is how you were from a generation which played | :07:29. | :07:30. | |
doubles as well. She pulled out of the mixed doubles last night. Would | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
she have been utter off have a clear day yesterday's yesterday to get her | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
head into this? We will never know. It is so easy to second-guess. She | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
has got a great chance here possibly to win the doubles. Unfortunately | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
she has to play Serena again later today. I would predict a better | :07:54. | :08:00. | |
chance in doubles! Here she is, Serena, after 26 minutes, serving | :08:01. | :08:01. | |
for this first set. Vesnina is hitting some high-quality | :08:02. | :08:48. | |
shots, but Serena is onto it. We were talking about her movement. | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
Even in Australia this year, I don't think she looked 100%. And she has | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
moved better at this year's Wimbledon then I think she was 6-8 | :09:01. | :09:02. | |
months ago, because of her knee. UMPIRE: Game and first set, Miss | :09:03. | :09:18. | |
Williams. Those groundstrokes, it's really | :09:19. | :09:36. | |
just what the doctor ordered for Serena. She is hitting every ball | :09:37. | :09:43. | |
around the waist. She knows what she's getting. She is not being | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
thrown off at all. Ironically, people would criticise her early in | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
her career for not playing enough and taking time off, not having | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
enough events to be ranked number one in the world, like everybody | :10:00. | :10:01. | |
expected she should be. But that's actually... Stompie now, and the | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
others have fallen by the wayside. Exactly. I suppose also, what you | :10:08. | :10:15. | |
have to say to people who might be here for the first time, on Centre | :10:16. | :10:23. | |
Court, especially after what happened yesterday's, you would have | :10:24. | :10:30. | |
to say, what you are seeing is arguably the greatest woman tennis | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
player of all time, perhaps one of the greatest women sportspeople of | :10:34. | :10:41. | |
all time. And you will be able to say, I saw Serena Williams. In | :10:42. | :10:49. | |
addition to her sister as well. The two of them, what a story. In 100 | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
years, has that ever happened? And the second semifinal we predict to | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
be the more competitive of the two. But you're seeing the most powerful | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
athlete certainly that has ever played tennis. As you said, possibly | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
one of the greatest female athletes of all time. | :11:09. | :12:08. | |
The net is on her side. She HAS to win this game, doesn't she, to make | :12:09. | :12:19. | |
it any kind of contest? She has to feel that she has a lead. | :12:20. | :12:49. | |
Every single shot seems to be perfectly in the strike zone of | :12:50. | :12:57. | |
Serena. When you hear the crispness of a shot like that, you can tell | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
what a good shot it has been. A combination of nerves, weariness, | :13:01. | :13:39. | |
heavy legs, is really causing some problems for Vesnina. Serena sensing | :13:40. | :13:48. | |
it, going behind her. She has got that ruthless look about her today, | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
Serena. UMPIRE: Game, Miss Williams. | :13:52. | :14:35. | |
JOHN INVERDALE: You can't afford to do that. You can see Elena Vesnina's | :14:36. | :14:46. | |
dad in the front row, in the white. And her coach. He travels on tour | :14:47. | :14:57. | |
with her. When you're a parent, coach, friend, whatever, and your | :14:58. | :15:04. | |
person is in this kind of situation, it is not easy. | :15:05. | :15:25. | |
Hawk-Eye, actually redundant so far in this match, because Serena is | :15:26. | :16:00. | |
playing that well. 123 - fastest serve of the tournament. No-one else | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
on the tour can consistently get that kind of powerful serve in. And | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
then you combine that with the feel and placement that she has with some | :16:13. | :16:20. | |
of the slower service. Look at that! That was ridiculous! -- the slower | :16:21. | :16:37. | |
serves. And already, I am throwing Vesnina's life forward 20 years, and | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
she's saying, I had one Grand Slam semifinal, and it just went by in | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
the blink of an eye. That will be the saddest thing. With talking | :16:47. | :16:53. | |
about games on the scoreboard. Next, it goes to time on court. Right now, | :16:54. | :17:03. | |
we are on just 35 minutes. Will she make it to an hour? If that happens, | :17:04. | :17:11. | |
something good will have happened for her. | :17:12. | :17:20. | |
But right now that is going to be extremely difficult to do. | :17:21. | :17:34. | |
It's the sun, it's the heat, it's the emotion, it's life. More than | :17:35. | :17:44. | |
anything else, it's her opponent. And error from the Williams racket. | :17:45. | :18:19. | |
In two hours' time, we could say that was the turning point in the | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
match! You are so optimistic! 20 years from now! A she will be | :18:26. | :18:37. | |
saying, that forehand from Serena changed my life. You never know! | :18:38. | :19:02. | |
JOHN INVERDALE: The scoreboard as one other interesting statistic - | :19:03. | :19:30. | |
just 38 minutes played. All Serena. Amey Miss Williams. | :19:31. | :19:53. | |
UMPIRE: Mrs Vesnina is challenging the call. | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
JOHN INVERDALE: Hawk-Eye has been awoken from its slumber. No, it is | :19:58. | :20:05. | |
well wide. UMPIRE: Game, Miss Williams. | :20:06. | :20:14. | |
And the end gets ever nearer. Venus and Angelique... Better get warming | :20:15. | :20:31. | |
up! It is difficult to know what to say, when the gulf in class is so | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
huge. But there was always a risk that this might happen. The bigger | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
the match, the bigger the occasion, the more likely this is to happen. | :20:43. | :20:45. | |
Vesnina would have had a bigger chance in the second round or third | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
round. But at this point, Serena's game has got better as the | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
tournament has gone on, more than any other player. | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
SUE BARKER: Certainly one way traffic on Centre Court at the | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
moment. We're going to leave this match here on BBC Two. You can | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
continue watching it live on BBC One. We're going to bring you some | :21:09. | :21:17. | |
ladies doubles, a quarterfinal, and this is Martina Hingis and her | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
partner Sagna Mirza. They have lost the first set, the defending | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
champions. They are also a break down to the normal five seeds. Let's | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
join this one with Andrew Castle and Louise plumbing. | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
ANDREW CASTLE: Thank you very much. Bright sunshine, probably 80% in | :21:38. | :21:43. | |
here, a little bit more than that. Martina Hingis and Sagna Mirza, as | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
you say, have not had it their own way at all. | :21:48. | :22:04. | |
Hingis especially has been struggling to hold serve. | :22:05. | :22:16. | |
But she does this time, in what was a must-win aim. | :22:17. | :22:29. | |
I think most people, Louise, would have been looking forward to seeing | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
this power. Martina Hingis, one of the finest, what is the word, | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
craftspeople, on a court, I have ever seen. 43 singles titles, the | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
last of those back in 2007. But doubles Grand Slam, or for Major | :22:45. | :22:51. | |
Championships, as long as goers 1998, three of them with Jana | :22:52. | :22:58. | |
Novotna. And the Australian Open, as a 15-year-old, with Helena Sukova. | :22:59. | :23:10. | |
Yes, an incredible story. I was lucky enough to just watch her play | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
in the finals of the mixed doubles, at the French Open, where she played | :23:15. | :23:26. | |
with Leander Paes. Clearly she is the best doubles player in the | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
world, along with Sagna Mirza. They were playing against each other in | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
that particular match. And Leander Paes and Martina have won or four | :23:37. | :23:44. | |
Majors together in the next as welcome of course. Meanwhile, that | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
was a big hold. She had a lot of matches ahead of | :23:48. | :24:15. | |
her this week. She said, I have only played three matches, and I'm still | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
in singles, doubles and mixed. She is such a fantastic athlete, she's a | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
machine. Nice problem to have. And that is where this match is going to | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
be won for this pair. They have to start to take control of the net. | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
They have allowed Babos and Shvedova to really control that area. That is | :24:42. | :24:44. | |
where their strength is, moving forwards, closing down the net. | :24:45. | :25:09. | |
Just a fraction too early there, Andrew. On the ball toss?! 69mph on | :25:10. | :26:15. | |
that second serve. A bit pushy, set and a break up against the top | :26:16. | :26:17. | |
seeds. That's a ridiculous angle. How did | :26:18. | :26:42. | |
she hit that? Must have been a slight mis-hit. That's not very | :26:43. | :26:45. | |
generous of you, but I know what you mean! She absolutely clocks it on | :26:46. | :26:48. | |
the forehand side! That's unusual. She's getting a | :26:49. | :27:17. | |
little tight out here. For every reason. Babos and Shvedova have just | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
started like machine guns. They've been just so solid. | :27:24. | :27:56. | |
You think it's just lucky positioning. But they really do | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
practice that. Just watching their opponent, getting their racket out | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
in front. He will be very happy with his charge at the moment. | :28:09. | :28:24. | |
They haven't both played well at the same time - yet. You get the feeling | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
that if they do, they could turn this around quite quickly. | :28:31. | :28:59. | |
Critical moment right here for Hingis and Sonia Mears, to get back | :29:00. | :29:53. | |
in this. They have to break here. They are winning every exchange they | :29:54. | :31:03. | |
possibly could, just when you think they are out of position, they pick | :31:04. | :31:10. | |
it up. That one was well selected. And that was a game to win to | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
maintain the break under enormous pressure. Look at the reaction. Love | :31:15. | :31:23. | |
it. Just such great chemistry, body language. | :31:24. | :31:37. | |
Near future there. Again, good presence of the net from Shvedova. | :31:38. | :31:49. | |
She really does make it look like you don't have a lot of space to hit | :31:50. | :31:51. | |
into. Mirza has been exposed more than | :31:52. | :32:10. | |
Hingis in this match, more errors than we are used to seeing. She is | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
the top seed in the mixed bubble with Ivan Dodig. -- the mixed ovals. | :32:16. | :32:36. | |
Oh, she tried to get involved, trying a little too hard there, | :32:37. | :34:00. | |
Martina Hingis, trying to help her partner. | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
Well, great hands and great understanding, sort of intuitive | :34:06. | :34:15. | |
belief in each other. As we have a look at this wonderful rally from | :34:16. | :34:18. | |
Shvedova, how do partners select each other? There are many different | :34:19. | :34:25. | |
ways, but I think you want to look at game styles, and try to get two | :34:26. | :34:29. | |
game styles that really fit well together. If you look at Hingis and | :34:30. | :34:38. | |
Mirza, Mirza has the big forehand that hit through the court, and that | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
sets up Hingis very well. I love the way these pair moved together, they | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
are almost like a wall at the net. De you just make a phone call and | :34:48. | :34:53. | |
say, do you fancy it? Yes, you go and you watch and you think, I like | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
how she plays, you will have a chat, perhaps your coach might go, you can | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
Facebook someone. There are many variations. If you are stuck, most | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
of these girls do know each other, and if your partner is not going to | :35:07. | :35:09. | |
the next tournament, you just say, have you got somebody? Let's go. But | :35:10. | :35:14. | |
for a long-term partner, you really want to look at the assets, trying | :35:15. | :35:18. | |
to get game styles that are complementary. I think I would play | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
great with you, Andrew. It would be an honour! We would complement each | :35:23. | :35:29. | |
other, that's for sure. , we would have a laugh. | :35:30. | :35:43. | |
I will take care of the net, and you can take care of the rest. You | :35:44. | :35:53. | |
haven't seen my forehand! The continental grip works on a wet | :35:54. | :35:55. | |
grass court, that is about it. I think I would rather enjoy a Punic | :35:56. | :36:28. | |
Lada and watch the television. Jordanne Whiley on court 16 at the | :36:29. | :36:38. | |
moment. She is a fantastic sportsperson. | :36:39. | :36:52. | |
It is a great choice again. Martina really trying to inject herself into | :36:53. | :37:05. | |
this match because time is running about, there is no doubt that she | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
has to try to make an impression. But Babos, big hitting. | :37:09. | :37:23. | |
It has been a long time since I have seen this pair just not find that | :37:24. | :37:30. | |
momentum, that path that they normally just so | :37:31. | :37:49. | |
just a little long. I think there are two pairs in the draw I would | :37:50. | :37:56. | |
not want to see, the un-seeded Williams sisters, and Babos and | :37:57. | :38:05. | |
Shvedova, they are in to refix form. -- terrific form. | :38:06. | :38:32. | |
You can probably hear from the crowd that this is a bit of a surprise. | :38:33. | :38:48. | |
They appeared to be strengthening, but they are on the receiving end | :38:49. | :38:50. | |
here, serving to stay in the match. Serena Williams, Venus Williams, | :38:51. | :39:01. | |
they haven't lost a set yet either, saw them playing on court 18 earlier | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
this week, you couldn't move for the people everywhere trying to get a | :39:07. | :39:07. | |
glimpse of these two champions. Something exceptional has to happen | :39:08. | :39:15. | |
right now the Hingis and Mirza. First ace of the match should for | :39:16. | :39:48. | |
the top seeds. And now they must serve it out, and | :39:49. | :40:02. | |
this is going to be interesting, because if nerves do get a hold, | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
Hingis and Mirza could break a couple of times. I hate to pre-empt | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
something like that, we have seen its only times, a bit of | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
inspiration, the winning line approaches and it is difficult to | :40:16. | :40:17. | |
get over it, and it would be a big win for Shvedova and Babos. I think | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
that will be the hope that the back of their mind, that that will be the | :40:24. | :40:27. | |
situation here. Sania Mirza not getting the ball back as much as | :40:28. | :40:34. | |
Martina. And if you are letting your partner down a little bit, you feel | :40:35. | :40:38. | |
it. She has just been the player that hasn't quite got into this | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
match at the moment, Mirza, just playing a little flat, and worried | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
how they are going to get into this match, and how they are going to | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
save this situation. Time is just almost locked out for them. | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
Just a reminder to Shvedova that she is serving for this match. That will | :40:57. | :41:09. | |
get the butterflies tingling! I remember one year at the | :41:10. | :41:37. | |
Australian Open I was playing against Stobbs and Raymond, I work | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
play my partner's name, but she served four double faults. It was | :41:43. | :41:44. | |
painful. So, we have seen one. Don't! It | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
would happen. -- won't happen. A little swing | :41:49. | :42:12. | |
there from Martina. Just needed to move forwards. | :42:13. | :42:31. | |
UMPIRE: This Hingis and Mirza are challenging the call. It is good. | :42:32. | :42:52. | |
Now, I would have had that at 15-30. Replay the point. I would have | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
fought like I should win that point. Yes. | :42:58. | :43:26. | |
UMPIRE: Miss Hingis, Mrs Mirza, challenging the call. We are right | :43:27. | :43:36. | |
online with that. It felt like it might be out. That has to be two | :43:37. | :43:46. | |
again! There is no way that the call affected the shot. That is exactly | :43:47. | :44:02. | |
the point from Martina. We have to win 1.3 times. This rule has to be | :44:03. | :44:12. | |
looked at. -- we have to win one point com three times. | :44:13. | :44:19. | |
With respect to Babos and Shvedova, that is fair enough. | :44:20. | :45:12. | |
Andrew, I think we have a match on here. She has got to try to get her | :45:13. | :45:27. | |
serve to the backhand side of Mirza. She has been going to that forehand | :45:28. | :45:30. | |
side, that goes back into her weakness. | :45:31. | :45:44. | |
UMPIRE: New balls, please. Is it the 5-2 number, Andrew? Whatever it is, | :45:45. | :45:56. | |
it is going to be tight. When Babos comes to serve for it, if they could | :45:57. | :46:03. | |
just hold on, the 5-4 game will be an interesting one. They feel like | :46:04. | :46:12. | |
they have a chance here. They relaxed a little after Martina's | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
very easy service game to love finished with that ace. Now they | :46:17. | :46:18. | |
have the return game. That is normally a gift for Hingis. | :46:19. | :47:05. | |
Wimbledon singles champion in 1997 as a 16-year-old. She took on Yana | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
Novotna. -- Jana. You hit it at me like that, that is | :47:10. | :47:33. | |
what you will get back! I thought she handled that pretty well. A lot | :47:34. | :47:38. | |
of players would have got a bit upset at that. | :47:39. | :48:34. | |
One-way traffic in the last ten minutes or so, it was 5-1 just a | :48:35. | :48:59. | |
moment ago, and don't think for a minute that Babos and Shvedova are | :49:00. | :49:07. | |
not thinking about it, as Mirza and Hingis have a reputation of being a | :49:08. | :49:11. | |
team who don't go away easily. The first couple of points will be huge, | :49:12. | :49:17. | |
12-3 the last 15 points. And most of those come off the racket of Martina | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
Hingis, you just notice the change, the positivity, the way she has | :49:23. | :49:26. | |
wanted to put herself in every situation, every point, she is | :49:27. | :49:32. | |
trying to draw the ball to her racket, and she is going a terrific | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
job. She was overextending herself in the first set, but now she is | :49:39. | :49:41. | |
making the right move at the right time. It is beautiful to watch. One | :49:42. | :49:53. | |
of my favourite matches of all time here was in 1996, she won the | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
doubles here is a 15-year-old. Is there more magic left in this match, | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
or is this the final game? Serving for a second time, Shvedova and | :50:02. | :50:09. | |
Babos. Kazakhstan and Hungary partnership, the fifth seeds. | :50:10. | :50:30. | |
Nice to his shot like that, get some nerves out, feeling a little anxiety | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
right now, no doubt. Oh, that was an absolute gift. | :50:36. | :50:57. | |
Hingis went in. Mirza stayed back. And of course, the attack went to | :50:58. | :51:05. | |
the player at the back of the court, and that wasn't ever in with a | :51:06. | :51:09. | |
chance. Two big first serves to begin this game. | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
This is a demonstration in how to serve out. | :51:15. | :51:24. | |
What a wonderful game she is playing, the youngest on this court, | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
just 23. What a game! | :51:29. | :51:42. | |
UMPIRE: Game, set and match. We said goodbye to the number one seeds, the | :51:43. | :51:48. | |
number one is advanced to the semifinal,. An intriguing match. | :51:49. | :52:05. | |
What an intriguing finish. Four Street massive first serves. So nice | :52:06. | :52:12. | |
to see women's doubles played, unlike the men, which has become | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
really rather clinical and so explosive, women's doubles there is | :52:17. | :52:24. | |
much more craft, guile, spin, lobs. Thoroughly enjoyable. A | :52:25. | :52:33. | |
disappointing moment for Mirza and Hingis, they just couldn't find | :52:34. | :52:35. | |
their style, just too many errors and it was rather odd to witness | :52:36. | :52:42. | |
that. And then as we saw, the last three games, they did start to | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
control, but what a brave and terrific finish their from Timea | :52:47. | :52:53. | |
Babos, she just took on her own ability to close out matches. That | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
was a phenomenal way to close out the match, they are a massive threat | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
in the drawer. I suppose Venus and Serena Williams, they are still in | :53:03. | :53:09. | |
as well, but nice to see someone in's doubles. The number one seeds | :53:10. | :53:15. | |
are out on a day when there is so much interesting tennis all around | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
the grounds, not just the women's semifinals, but also some | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
wheelchairs singles, some junior singles and mixed as well, as the | :53:26. | :53:28. | |
draw continues to recover from a wet first week. | :53:29. | :53:37. | |
Just taking a moment here on Court Number One to sign a few autographs | :53:38. | :53:44. | |
and take a little bit of time. It really doesn't take much effort, but | :53:45. | :53:47. | |
it was memorable. Who was the first autograph you ever got? You can't | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
remember! I can't. It is quite interesting. Mine was a blue coated | :53:56. | :53:59. | |
pontoons holiday camp, to wasn't really a sports star. But then Ilie | :54:00. | :54:06. | |
Nastase gave me his autograph after I watched him on court to, I think I | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
still have it. I can't throw it away! Still in love with him. Shore. | :54:11. | :54:21. | |
Who is your favourite to win this? It is hard to go past the Williams | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
sisters, isn't it? Three times gold medallists, the Williams sisters, | :54:29. | :54:31. | |
incredible. What a match here for a boss and Shvedova, they really owned | :54:32. | :54:40. | |
it. 65% first serve there, returns in play, that is high-quality, but | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
really just the power at which they were able to maintain today, they | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
were solid from the net, high percentage of first serves, I really | :54:49. | :54:52. | |
felt they came out here and it was there a day. Four out of four on | :54:53. | :54:57. | |
break points, 100%. You have to take your chances when they present | :54:58. | :55:01. | |
themselves, and that is what they did. | :55:02. | :55:07. | |
And this is the way they closed it out, it is the fourth first serve in | :55:08. | :55:14. | |
a row from Timea Babos, who had seen her partner, Shvedova, struggle when | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
she served for it at 5-2. But if you are going to knock in first serves | :55:22. | :55:26. | |
at well over 100 mph four times in a row, you are playing percentages, | :55:27. | :55:29. | |
and she should be proud of herself for that. Still in the Mixed Doubles | :55:30. | :55:38. | |
as well, Shvedova, at the top of the draw. They beat Anna Smith and Neal | :55:39. | :55:50. | |
Skupski who had beaten Ivan Dodig. Day ten of Wimbledon, it is actually | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
day 11 because of people's Sunday that the poor weather in the first | :55:56. | :55:59. | |
week forced upon us, some junior doubles taking place, and some | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
seniors as well. Mansour Bahrami is playing, and the women's semifinals | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
are on Centre Court. As you walk up those stairs past the Centre Court | :56:10. | :56:12. | |
changing rooms on the right-hand side, the members area there, and | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
heading out to some of the courts where the wheelchair singles is | :56:18. | :56:21. | |
taking place for the first time. There is something for everybody, | :56:22. | :56:24. | |
including those on Henman Hill and around, great to see some sunshine, | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
get away from Australia, come here and get yourself a nice tan. That is | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
exactly right. I never doubted that the weather would arrive. It might | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
be a little late. It is just so nice that these poor people sitting on | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
the grass that they have got a nice, dry spot to sit on for the first | :56:43. | :56:52. | |
time. Men's Singles semifinals tomorrow, many people expecting a | :56:53. | :56:55. | |
Federer versus Murray final on Sunday. That would certainly be a | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
ratings winner, but it was certainly rock'n'roll last night, and we look | :57:01. | :57:03. | |
forward to the Men's Singles semifinal. You can go over into that | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
capability Brown designed lake over there, the whole thing used to be | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
the garden to one of the big houses up in Wimbledon Village, get | :57:13. | :57:15. | |
yourself one of those boats. You probably already know how to do | :57:16. | :57:21. | |
that? I am class! I do live on the water in Sydney. Get yourself to a | :57:22. | :57:27. | |
big European city like this. Let's head up north and east, up into the | :57:28. | :57:35. | |
City of London there. Fantastic. I was there earlier this morning, so | :57:36. | :57:40. | |
busy, so nice to come down and get a little bit of tranquillity here, and | :57:41. | :57:43. | |
watch some great tennis. There is plenty more of it to come. Men's | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
Doubles semifinals on the way on Court Number One. Julien Benneteau | :57:48. | :57:57. | |
and Roger-Vasselin are in action, so good players around. Plenty more | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
tennis to come, enjoy it. Louise, thank you very much indeed. Shvedova | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
and Babos in merging into the semifinals of the women's doubles. | :58:08. | :58:14. | |
SUE BARKER: The defending champions going out on Court Number One in the | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
women's doubles. We can take you to another Ladies' Doubles which is | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
taking place on Court Number Two. Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova | :58:24. | :58:30. | |
up against Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. Let's join our | :58:31. | :58:37. | |
commentators, Liz Smiley and Barry Davies. | :58:38. | :58:58. | |
LIZ SMILIE: break point goes begging there, not quite getting to the | :58:59. | :59:09. | |
ball, but they have done a good job in this match so far, Goerges and | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
Pliskova. Excellent second serve there, just | :59:14. | :59:32. | |
catching Pliskova a little by surprise. And landed right on the | :59:33. | :59:34. | |
line. One more chance. And so the double break comes. And | :59:35. | :00:16. | |
the number two seeds in deep, deep trouble. Solid point from Goerges | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
there on the back of the court. Well, they got one of the breaks | :00:22. | :02:30. | |
back. Can they find their way back into | :02:31. | :03:01. | |
this match? Obviously, you would have thought that having been broken | :03:02. | :03:10. | |
twice, and it was not so much that they broke one back, it was the | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
opponents making mistakes. Compare for me the ladies and the men's. | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
There are men's doubles players who turn to that from their singles game | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
and play it seriously, that's their career. For it does not seem to | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
happen in the women's? It does, actually. It is just that it has | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
been happening for longer in men's tennis, that you can have a career | :03:37. | :03:39. | |
and just play doubles. If you're good enough, you can make a very | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
good living just out of playing doubles, either men's or women's. We | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
have got men here, 37, 38 years of age. Yes, and very entertaining. We | :03:52. | :03:59. | |
saw match a couple of days ago, with the Bryan brothers. That was on | :04:00. | :04:13. | |
Centre Court. It is a good serve by Mladenovic, right at the body. | :04:14. | :04:53. | |
Come on, hand it back! They'd do a great job here, the ball kids. And | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
they are very quick. Very efficient. Well, the second serve speed was | :05:00. | :05:32. | |
just 70mph from Mladenovic, putting her under pressure immediately, | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
Goerges just hammering the crosscourt. She's struggled in her | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
last service game, Mladenovic, it went on for a long time and she | :05:42. | :05:43. | |
eventually lost it. Nine deuces. Just a bit too much court for | :05:44. | :06:16. | |
Goerges to cover. This next one here from Goerges, that's the one which | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
created the difficulty for her Cheryshev just couldn't cover the | :06:20. | :06:21. | |
next one that came. Well, Pliskova, she shipped for it. | :06:22. | :06:51. | |
And then she realised that she could not quite get to it. Garcia was | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
equal to the task. Excuse me, Goerges was equal to the task. She | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
followed up behind her. Good cover there from Goerges. Puts it back in | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
the melting pot. So, after starting well in this | :07:06. | :07:38. | |
service game, Mladenovic and her partner now face match point. | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
Goerges, poised to find the return she's looking for. | :07:47. | :07:59. | |
Oh, but she didn't find it! Wow! That second serve was very, very | :08:00. | :08:08. | |
slow. As a matter-of-fact, it was so slow that it didn't even register on | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
the serve speed gun. You can see it over her shoulder there. Goerges | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
just not able to take advantage of it. That's a better one. | :08:19. | :08:50. | |
That's a good interception by Garcia. | :08:51. | :09:22. | |
That is a good way to start the game for Julia Goodison. -- for Julia | :09:23. | :09:45. | |
Goerges. That's the serve that has been so | :09:46. | :10:01. | |
effective for her, Goerges, that one up the middle to Garcia's forehand. | :10:02. | :10:03. | |
It drew the error again. They got all caught up Tom Pliskova | :10:04. | :10:42. | |
and Goerges. They ended up right near each other. They very nearly | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
collided! Mladenovic had the presence of mind not to pay any | :10:50. | :10:52. | |
attention to that and hit the shot up the line. Hanging in there, the | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
number two seeds. Oh, that's a great pick-up from | :10:56. | :11:13. | |
Goerges! Garcia was onto that return. She crushed a forehand. Just | :11:14. | :11:20. | |
centimetres from the line, and Goerges did really well. Second | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
match point. Oh! How simply won! So they have | :11:26. | :11:48. | |
done it again. They beat them in the Australian Open in the last 16. And | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
now they have beaten the highest seeded partnership remaining here at | :11:53. | :12:02. | |
Wimbledon, in the quarterfinals. Performance Goerges and Pliskova. | :12:03. | :12:10. | |
Remember, they were just the number eight seed playing against the | :12:11. | :12:18. | |
number two seeds. SUE BARKER: Another surprise in the | :12:19. | :12:21. | |
ladies doubles championship. They go through to the semifinals to await | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
the winner of the game between the Williams sisters and their | :12:28. | :12:34. | |
opponents. I wonder if the will have recovered from what happened to her | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
on Centre Court earlier today. -- if Vesnina. It was Serena who took just | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
49 minutes to dispatch Vesnina. It was a wonderful serving display from | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
Serena. But Vesnina was totally overawed by her opponent and the | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
occasion, and never played her best. Hopefully she will be better in the | :12:58. | :13:03. | |
doubles match today. These two, good friends, a warm handshake at the | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
end. It is Serena who goes through to the final once again. So, Serena, | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
safely through. What about her sister Venus? She is encore at the | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
moment and is down a break of serve. Angelique Kerber, from Germany, the | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
Australian Open champion, has just opened Venus's serve. That is live | :13:23. | :13:30. | |
on BBC One. Here on BBC Two, we're going to go over to Court No. 1 for | :13:31. | :13:36. | |
a semifinal in the men's doubles. It is Julien Benneteau and Eduard | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
Roger, but. They put out Jamie Murray and his partner yesterday's. | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
Let's enjoy this match with John Lloyd and Mark Petchey. | :13:49. | :13:57. | |
MARK PETCHEY: Welcome to Court No. 1, and what promises to be a | :13:58. | :14:05. | |
attractive men's semifinal in the doubles. Julien | :14:06. | :14:21. | |
Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin am a winners of the French Open in 2014. | :14:22. | :14:28. | |
They have had an epic route through to get here to the semifinals. | :14:29. | :14:49. | |
The other pairing have got through to hear without dropping a set so | :14:50. | :14:56. | |
far. They will be the much fresher pair. The American and the South | :14:57. | :15:06. | |
African. The American, the only man on the court who has singles titles | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
to his name. Julien Benneteau, the unlucky tag of making ten ATP | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
singles finals and yet to win one. They have made a habit of winning | :15:18. | :15:19. | |
here in spectacular fashion. Third round here this year, the | :15:20. | :15:32. | |
French team were down a couple of match points before winning in the | :15:33. | :15:41. | |
fifth set. The Argentinian umpire. And then the French team breaking | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
British hearts, as Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares valiantly went down | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
10-8 in the fifth, having trailed by a couple of sets. They then won | :15:51. | :16:02. | |
third 13-11, and the fourth, but could not quite get themselves | :16:03. | :16:03. | |
through to the last four. Do you think, John, that the five | :16:04. | :16:21. | |
setters that this French team have had will have any bearing on this | :16:22. | :16:23. | |
match? JOHN LLOYD: Well, they are used to | :16:24. | :16:30. | |
playing a lot of tennis, but there have been a couple of very tight | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
matches mentally. On the physical side it might have an effective the | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
match goes on a decent amount of time. Certainly the American-South | :16:38. | :16:47. | |
African pairing have had a relatively easy route through to the | :16:48. | :16:48. | |
semifinals. More than a touch of the Pete | :16:49. | :17:09. | |
Sampras. I was going to say, he has modelled his game on Pete Sampras. | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
You can see that with the service motion, and the forehand as well. | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
Not quite as good as Pete Sampras, and exactly the same! -- but exactly | :17:18. | :17:31. | |
the same! One of the hardest working players out on tour. | :17:32. | :17:43. | |
Had a look down the court just to see if Roger-Vasselin was making | :17:44. | :18:02. | |
inroads to the net. Surprised he did not come in, actually. | :18:03. | :18:24. | |
He is the playmaker, Julien Benneteau. He blows a bit hot and | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
cold on returns. . But when he gets hot, he is almost unplayable. He got | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
a couple of on the sending singles court against Roger Federer as well | :18:39. | :18:40. | |
- a tribute to his class. The 6ft 4 American Rajiv Ram just | :18:41. | :19:06. | |
getting settled, holding onto his serve, in these early stages. He | :19:07. | :19:14. | |
will be off to Newport to try to defend his title there. For Julien | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
Benneteau, it has been nice to have a season back on the court. He spent | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
eight months last year recovering from surgery from a groin injury. | :19:22. | :19:30. | |
Currently ranked on the singles court at 547. Back inside the | :19:31. | :19:38. | |
world's top 50 in doubles, after this run to the semifinals. He has | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
been as high as number five in the world. Roger-Vasselin, who will be | :19:43. | :19:51. | |
serving here, has been June six in the world, and according to live | :19:52. | :19:53. | |
rankings, which you can go and look up, Klaasen will be breaking into | :19:54. | :20:06. | |
the top ten next week as well. It looked like Raven Klaasen did not | :20:07. | :20:33. | |
really play that serve. Was going to appeal, but decided not to. | :20:34. | :21:18. | |
Would serving from the 6ft to Frenchman, now 32 years of age. His | :21:19. | :21:27. | |
father played as well, got through to the semifinals of the French | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
Open, losing to Yannick Noah back in 1983. Wow! That was no holding back | :21:31. | :21:48. | |
on that return! Yes, Roger-Vasselin, his father beat Jimmy Connors there | :21:49. | :21:50. | |
in the quarterfinals. Ireland are that much, it was very heavy | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
conditions, and Roger-Vasselin hit a lot of sliced balls to the forehand | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
of Jimmy Connors and eventually wore him down. The French crowd went | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
absolutely nuts - I remember that much. | :22:04. | :22:15. | |
-- that match. Short backswing for Raven Klaasen, he was able to leave | :22:16. | :22:26. | |
it late enough to see what Benneteau was going to do. | :22:27. | :22:38. | |
He is a quick thinking and quick moving player, Raven Klaasen. | :22:39. | :23:08. | |
No messing around with that volley. He does not really want the ball to | :23:09. | :24:02. | |
go there. He can just swing at it, no problem. | :24:03. | :24:33. | |
The tallest man on the court, Rajiv Ram, taking that one comfortably out | :24:34. | :24:41. | |
of the air. The smallest man on the court, at 5ft 11ins, Klaasen. | :24:42. | :25:02. | |
JOHN LLOYD: They have settled pretty well, Klaasen and Rajiv Ram. It is | :25:03. | :25:10. | |
only early days, but coming out here in a Grand Slam after that big win | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
against the Bryan brothers. But still, this is certainly the biggest | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
match of their career. Klaasen in particular, he made inroads on the | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
circuit in doubles rankings pretty late in his career. He has moved up | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
the list not at a fast pace, but every year moving up, and this has | :25:28. | :25:33. | |
been his big breakthrough year. They seem to like the atmosphere. I think | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
that win against the Bryan brothers - admittedly not the force they once | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
were, but still the name pair - when you beat them in the draw, you feel | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
like you have got a chance to win the event. And they have not dropped | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
a set yet in the Championships. That's impressive. | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
MARK PETCHEY: Of course, Klaasen, runner-up in Australia back in 2014 | :25:57. | :26:03. | |
with his partner, ended up becoming Leander Paes' 99th partner in 2015, | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
just before Wimbledon. Rajiv Ram, semifinalist at the US Open in | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
doubles with Scotland's ski, who he played with for a number of years. | :26:18. | :26:27. | |
-- with Scott Lipski. And of course, these two have won Halle on the | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
doubles court as well. In just their second tournament together last | :26:33. | :26:34. | |
year, they won Halle. Wimbledon is the special one for | :26:35. | :26:48. | |
them. It's the one where they still play five sets, it's the one where I | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
think the players feel like they are treated like a player. The other | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
events, they are sort of shot on the back courts, best-of-three sets, no | :26:59. | :27:06. | |
ads. The US Open, I think the finals is at 11 o'clock morning -- in the | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
morning on a Friday and there is no-one in the stands. | :27:12. | :27:34. | |
That is a good return. He is finding that forehand sweetly out of the | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
middle of the racket so far here, Rajiv Ram. That win over the Bryan | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
brothers was the third of the year against the great American pairing. | :27:47. | :27:49. | |
They beat them in Australia in the round of 16 before losing to Mars | :27:50. | :27:59. | |
and Bruno Soares. They also beat them in error on the way to the | :28:00. | :28:07. | |
title there. It underlines the quality from the South | :28:08. | :28:09. | |
African-American pairing. He is in your world tennis team, | :28:10. | :28:24. | |
isn't he, the South African? Yes, he is. Now he's jumped up, he will | :28:25. | :28:32. | |
probably be wanting a bonus payment. Working with you IS a bonus, John! | :28:33. | :28:49. | |
Roger-Vasselin Mahut is also back in the world's top ten in doubles, | :28:50. | :28:58. | |
courtesy of his run here. He will be happy with the way that he has just | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
mopped up that service game for his partner. You were talking about | :29:03. | :29:06. | |
Klaasen in particular coming late to it. Was only 2012 when he finally | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
finished inside the world's top hundred in doubles. He finished 2013 | :29:12. | :29:20. | |
at 44. Equal 20th in 2014. And on his own at the same ranking in 2015. | :29:21. | :29:27. | |
He moved to sue there, Klaasen. It is all about the timing and when you | :29:28. | :29:44. | |
cross. You have got to time it exactly right. Just as the ball is | :29:45. | :29:47. | |
coming off the strings, you move. A fraction too soon, and he can direct | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
it to where you are not any more. That's what he is so good at, | :29:52. | :30:12. | |
Benneteau, when he gets his range, firing it alone, almost flat, back | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
to the incoming server. It is so difficult to control, because you | :30:19. | :30:20. | |
have got to focus so hard on that all coming over the net, so that you | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
cannot really see out of your peripheral vision what his partner | :30:26. | :30:26. | |
is doing. IM told you get more nervous as you | :30:27. | :30:50. | |
get older, even at this standard players who played into their mid | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
30s spoke about that. APPLAUSE | :30:56. | :31:06. | |
She really dealt with that. Her signature shot. Opening up the point | :31:07. | :31:12. | |
with that shot. APPLAUSE | :31:13. | :31:47. | |
A classy way to get out of that situation. | :31:48. | :32:32. | |
It is nice to see the sun out in all its glory. A nice and warm day. Not | :32:33. | :32:42. | |
speaking to each other... Silence, across the country. But as you can | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
see the hats are out and it is pretty humid as well. So much more | :32:47. | :32:55. | |
enjoyable for the fans to sit there and relax and soak up, not just the | :32:56. | :33:04. | |
sun but the wonderful fast-paced doubles. Again probably 75% of his | :33:05. | :33:10. | |
audience here only play doubles. They are very keen to see angles, | :33:11. | :33:17. | |
neck played, how the top players played, how they move, and I am sure | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
with those sorts of stances, the Australians... I wouldn't like to be | :33:24. | :33:26. | |
doing that either. That is a great second serve. You | :33:27. | :34:01. | |
can see the amount of moving the do in doubles these days. The first | :34:02. | :34:06. | |
game when they return, why not hit every ball straight down the line? | :34:07. | :34:09. | |
Just get them out of that rhythm. You will probably make two winners | :34:10. | :34:12. | |
because they cross almost every ball. | :34:13. | :34:25. | |
That is not easy, trying to hit a drop volley-mac with a PC forehand | :34:26. | :34:50. | |
like that. -- dropped volley with a pacy forehand. That is twice, | :34:51. | :34:57. | |
ricocheted off the net. APPLAUSE | :34:58. | :35:03. | |
That was behind him when he hit that! On this forehand, Ram is | :35:04. | :35:15. | |
really returning well and it looked like it was going to be Ram's point | :35:16. | :35:22. | |
air. Excellent hands. He was a little unlucky there, Klaasen, was | :35:23. | :35:31. | |
in the? But because he was behind Roger-Vasselin he had no option but | :35:32. | :35:41. | |
to flick it down the line. Ram is the one who settled the best in the | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
return of serve department and Klaasen is just finding his way at | :35:46. | :35:53. | |
the moment. If you get out of this game without getting hit, it is a | :35:54. | :35:55. | |
miracle. LAUGHTER | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
. APPLAUSE | :36:01. | :36:07. | |
That would have been good even if it had been a first serve, into the | :36:08. | :36:18. | |
strength of Ram and it beat him I think the fact they are going to | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
that formation again is just another indicator that they recognise Ram's | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
start in this match. The bigger of the shots, more consistent. | :36:28. | :36:41. | |
Klaasen is not the biggest server, but he is extremely quick into the | :36:42. | :36:52. | |
net behind his delivery. A lot of his volleys you will see are three | :36:53. | :36:56. | |
or four Max the inside the service box. So quick. The service action | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
propelled him into the court and he has a good couple of steps | :37:01. | :37:12. | |
afterwards -- four steps and save the service box. | :37:13. | :37:21. | |
has a good couple of steps afterwards -- four steps inside | :37:22. | :37:24. | |
It is not dissimilar to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's, but that left him, with | :37:25. | :37:41. | |
the back of the ball from that situation, and -- situation that | :37:42. | :37:42. | |
Benneteau found himself in. APPLAUSE | :37:43. | :38:24. | |
Doing extremely well there are just to cover Ram, just couldn't quite | :38:25. | :38:30. | |
get the first one. It was a late call as well. As the ball has | :38:31. | :38:39. | |
already passed him. LAUGHTER | :38:40. | :38:51. | |
But you try. Beautiful return. He had no chance to get that one back, | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
off the backhand, inside the line, too good. | :38:58. | :39:19. | |
He has a lively arm, 124. A couple of returns that were world-class on | :39:20. | :39:30. | |
the doubles court from the French team here, look at this angle he | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
creates. You can't do a lot there if you are the partner as well, from | :39:35. | :39:41. | |
Ram's point of view. A lot of court he could potentially go to, using | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
the angles. He snapped off a very cute one. -- acute. Advantage, | :39:46. | :40:04. | |
Klaasen. You certainly could say that Ram, he has a lot of authority, | :40:05. | :40:06. | |
when he says" you" or" yours goes -- "yours". | :40:07. | :40:33. | |
LAUGHTER Maybe he should really say, "How | :40:34. | :40:46. | |
about you?" . Three stretched volleys, tired out your! | :40:47. | :40:55. | |
Three stretched volleys, tired out here! | :40:56. | :41:11. | |
Roger-Vasselin, just a little look out to sea. The obviously didn't | :41:12. | :41:26. | |
hear too much from his end -- to see. Two double faults. Starting to | :41:27. | :41:32. | |
put a bit of pressure on the second serve and that is forcing | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
Roger-Vasselin to go for a bigger serve than he is used to. Good | :41:37. | :41:38. | |
returning from the French team. I am not sure if he meant that to be | :41:39. | :42:07. | |
that short, Ram, on that volley. It ended up to be a good drop shot, a | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
good drop volley. Again, good returning, though. Tunisia is really | :42:13. | :42:27. | |
getting hold of these returns no. -- now. What a serve. From where he was | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
standing it looked almost impossible to get that angle. And also, how did | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
he get it past Ram's head? He just missed. Looking at where he was | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
standing, I thought he couldn't possibly go for a wide one, and it | :42:43. | :42:48. | |
whistled past his ear. If you were serving to me, I would have been | :42:49. | :42:58. | |
looking the other way! New balls, please. A lot of different looks | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
there with the movement at the net for the French team. Moving the | :43:03. | :43:15. | |
serve around exceptionally well. They will be a little buoyed up, the | :43:16. | :43:22. | |
fact they got close, getting their teeth into the returns. They could | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
almost be unplayable for Kabul. But one of the great service of the | :43:27. | :43:36. | |
match so far -- unplayable for a couple. Yes, it's just whistled past | :43:37. | :43:41. | |
his ear. After a couple of double faults. And you can see he has a | :43:42. | :43:46. | |
nice motion, just how he or she is. He reaches up, gets around the | :43:47. | :43:49. | |
outside, and it just whistled past, and look at that angle he hit there. | :43:50. | :43:57. | |
Gorgeous serve. Lovely rotation, look at the back almost parallel to | :43:58. | :44:03. | |
the baseline there. That is Federer -esque from him. He needed that one | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
there. Confidence can go after a couple of double faults. Got through | :44:10. | :44:12. | |
that game, weathered the storm a little bit, and now there can be | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
some confidence from that service game. His server seems to be at the | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
moment the most vulnerable of the four. He backs it up well with such | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
a good first volley. He liked that one. He makes the | :44:27. | :45:38. | |
early move, knows where it is coming. Great footwork. It is quite | :45:39. | :45:51. | |
the flat, slicy second serve, Tunisia, with pace. Boy, he was | :45:52. | :45:58. | |
quick there, Klaasen. Superb anticipation. -- slicy, with pace. | :45:59. | :46:09. | |
How quick things can turn around in Men's Doubles. Such a low return. | :46:10. | :46:20. | |
Didn't anticipate the drop volley was coming. | :46:21. | :46:32. | |
-- Benneteau exceptionally well there. | :46:33. | :47:04. | |
One of Ram's slate Nick Ealey skew is his speed around the court, not | :47:05. | :47:12. | |
the quickest player there. -- one of his slight Achilles heels. | :47:13. | :47:50. | |
APPLAUSE Just couldn't quite get it deep | :47:51. | :48:05. | |
enough, Klaasen. That was a much tougher one. Ram really tried to do | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
the best he could, but it was rock solid overhead. Conservative, but | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
they knew they were on top of the rally. | :48:16. | :48:26. | |
Solid again, good return. It looks like he's trying to go quite a bit | :48:27. | :49:06. | |
to the volley of Klaasen on the right-hand side. Klaasen is making | :49:07. | :49:09. | |
some nice little moves to give himself room the return. | :49:10. | :49:19. | |
He has landed it. It had to be on the line because Roger-Vasselin had | :49:20. | :49:42. | |
made the move and pretty much had the rest of the court to be able to | :49:43. | :49:51. | |
cover whatever Ram hit, but the perfect backhand return. Can they | :49:52. | :49:52. | |
capitalise? Great serve. Arguably his most | :49:53. | :50:17. | |
comfortable one, not that he doesn't have a pretty good serve outweighed, | :50:18. | :50:22. | |
Benneteau, but there is a little more curve on it than most players | :50:23. | :50:25. | |
and because of that the one on the key is probably the ones on the big | :50:26. | :50:30. | |
points he will hit nine times out of ten -- out wide. | :50:31. | :50:50. | |
With so much movement out here, is it a case in many ways of just | :50:51. | :50:58. | |
putting your spot all the time? I think so, it is difficult and is bit | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
when you're crossing. If you are going to go over the line or a | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
crosscourt and just hate it. I don't think you have time. -- hit it. We | :51:08. | :51:23. | |
are speaking second serve. Of course, otherwise you have a little | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
more time. He got a lot more bones on that serve. That was above his | :51:28. | :51:32. | |
shoulders and it is just that much tougher to control at times -- | :51:33. | :51:40. | |
bounce. You speak a lot about length on the court but sometimes on a | :51:41. | :51:43. | |
second serve if you can just get it in short and get it to lift off the | :51:44. | :51:56. | |
court it is a pretty good serve as well. | :51:57. | :53:29. | |
APPLAUSE Klaasen and Ram lead, five games to | :53:30. | :53:46. | |
four. He could not have wished to deliver a more perfect service game | :53:47. | :53:59. | |
there, Rajeev Ram. Looking at these doubles, in the Slam, vaguely normal | :54:00. | :54:02. | |
doubles, so to speak, but the rest of the year they play no when Ken | :54:03. | :54:11. | |
is. Sudden death in these service games. What do you think? -- they | :54:12. | :54:27. | |
play no end tennis. The matches are over in an hour, they come to | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
Wimbledon and you can get matches that go for four hours. It is a big | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
difference. I know it is doubles, not singles, but still. Spending the | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
whole year focusing just for one hour, one hour and 20 minutes, then | :54:40. | :54:43. | |
it comes into four hours, and you can see how their concentration camp | :54:44. | :54:46. | |
go. Wobbled and is the only one that does this. I suppose they enjoy it | :54:47. | :54:57. | |
-- can go. The other ones are just sudden death overtime -- Wimbledon | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
is the only one that does this. They enjoy being out here, they love the | :55:04. | :55:07. | |
game, love being out here for as long as possible. It is a real treat | :55:08. | :55:09. | |
for them, as you say. What an angle! He has done that a | :55:10. | :55:42. | |
few times in the second serve, hasn't he? 90 mph is good pace on | :55:43. | :55:55. | |
the second serve. For Roger-Vasselin they have both come on his second | :55:56. | :55:58. | |
serve. It is such a difference, though, in | :55:59. | :56:13. | |
ten years of doubles, used to players with chip returns, not all | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
the time but quite often. Very rarely do you see that type of | :56:19. | :56:27. | |
return any more. It is all about taking chances, hitting over the | :56:28. | :56:36. | |
ball. The lob is still a good shot, though, with the about of movement | :56:37. | :56:40. | |
areas. Yes, and with hanging over the neck, if you time it right, and | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
Jamie Murray is about the best in that regard -- over the net. | :56:45. | :57:01. | |
Klaasen and Klaasen have done better in this match already than they did | :57:02. | :57:16. | |
in previous meetings between these teams, last year in Rome on the | :57:17. | :57:23. | |
clay. Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin won that one, so they already have | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
more points on the board. You can see how from that position | :57:30. | :57:32. | |
Roger-Vasselin is expecting the one down the tea to the two tables | :57:33. | :57:38. | |
neutralise that angle he has at his disposal. They are trying to narrow | :57:39. | :57:41. | |
the court with that serve but then he put it out wide and he just | :57:42. | :57:43. | |
cannot The danger is with that Tunisia | :57:44. | :59:33. | |
backhand, you have to be very alert and move very quickly -- that | :59:34. | :59:42. | |
Benneteau backhand. Those Ram's duty there was to close the gap but | :59:43. | :59:45. | |
otherwise you leave space. If you time it a bit wrong you can | :59:46. | :59:47. | |
obviously see this He just lost his bearings a little | :59:48. | :00:42. | |
bit and because he was so focussed on where the ball was, he didn't | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
really have a great understanding of where Roger-Vasselin had moved to. | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
He tried to cut it a little too close to the line across court. Here | :00:52. | :00:59. | |
they are with Ram in the I position here. Where will Klaasen go? Will he | :01:00. | :01:10. | |
go back out wide? A terrific return. Roger-Vasselin stayed home down The | :01:11. | :01:19. | |
T and he got his reward. A good educated guess from the Frenchman | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
and he gives his partner a chance here. | :01:23. | :01:41. | |
Just a little tentative with the forehand from Klaasen. It gave | :01:42. | :01:53. | |
Benneteau time. Although he didn't rip it there, | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
Julien Benneteau, he picked the right man who just for the first | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
time in the opening set just looked a little fragile. Yes, they were | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
good ground strokes with a lot of spin and dipping, shots, these days | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
the volley has to be deep otherwise the power that the baseline can hit | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
with the ground strokes, two unfortunate errors in a row. Good | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
pressing by the French team. Benneteau's brother is helping him | :02:23. | :02:52. | |
out coaching wise at the moment. He split with his coach back in October | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
2015 partly I'm sure because of the lack of match play and because of | :02:57. | :02:58. | |
the surgery. Doing the basics well after getting | :02:59. | :03:48. | |
that break. We have seen a couple of really nice | :03:49. | :04:12. | |
backhands from Ram off that serve down The T, but it is not easy to | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
keep producing and you wonder whether you're going to get the | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
opponent crossing on the net. He tried to find a return there down | :04:21. | :04:28. | |
the line, but hasn't picked it. And... The 2014 champions are a set | :04:29. | :04:48. | |
closer to a final here at Wimbledon. It is the first set they've lost | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
this championship Klaasen and Ram and you look back to that game where | :04:53. | :05:01. | |
they had 0-40, sorry on Benneteau's serve and Klaasen actually made a | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
very good forehand return and a good half-volley from Benneteau, but it | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
was a makeable forehand by Klaasen which he missed by a foot and it | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
would have been a clean winner and that would have been the break. So | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
it is just small points here that make the difference. The stats | :05:18. | :05:28. | |
there, Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin strong on the service sets. Winning | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
80% on their second serves which is remarkable statistics, but there is | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
the big one, the break points, Klaasen and Ram had four and didn't | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
convert. Other than that, they have got to take the chances and they had | :05:45. | :05:53. | |
that 0-40 and didn't take one of the break points. It is the first set | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
they've lost in the Championships. We have got a couple from France who | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
are pretty battle hardened in terms of the big points they have had to | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
play going down the stretch in the last couple of matches, so they will | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
be somewhat relieved that they managed to get that under their | :06:09. | :06:17. | |
belt. It is a good match though. It is a good standard. The crowd are | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
enjoying it. There has been a few very good rallies. Some classy | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
tennis out here. Well, I think it is not a bad match. Sometimes you get | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
doubles, the serves are so big, you get matches where you just drift in | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
and there is no returns going back and it is a little bit one-paced. | :06:39. | :06:44. | |
The serves are good serves, but nothing where there are ridiculous | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
serves, we are seeing some good first volleys. | :06:50. | :07:14. | |
These teams are synchronised as well, these days, compared to your | :07:15. | :07:21. | |
day, the need for the bathroom break at the same time as each other! I | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
didn't know what that was. We weren't allowed to do that! | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
Well, they just want to take a little bit extra time as well to get | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
themselves in the right frame of mind as they start a pretty pivotal | :07:37. | :07:46. | |
second set for them. And just put the relative disappointment behind | :07:47. | :07:48. | |
them of losing that opening set. They were the ones that looked as | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
though they started a little more brightly, but it was the French team | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
that started stronger. He called out there, but | :07:58. | :08:33. | |
Roger-Vasselin thought that was going out. I'm sure Benneteau could | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
have got that anyway. I think he could. A good rally. A nice feel | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
from all four players. The coach who is working with | :08:41. | :09:14. | |
Klaasen. He is South African. Well, you saw a little space and he | :09:15. | :09:34. | |
was millimetres away from landing it. And that's the danger when you | :09:35. | :09:44. | |
go to the angle, you can see Ram's first volley up the middle narrowing | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
the angles he went wide there, but didn't get enough on it and they had | :09:49. | :09:49. | |
a lot to defend. Has he got stung? A bee. Owh. | :09:50. | :10:43. | |
A sting. Sometimes, I don't know if you can see see the sting, but you | :10:44. | :10:52. | |
can almost pull it out, but wow, that's... | :10:53. | :11:00. | |
Oh, he picked it up. The memo, don't pick bees up! | :11:01. | :11:10. | |
He needs to go and update his subscription to the Discovery | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
Channel and just check what happens in the wild. | :11:15. | :11:15. | |
LAUGHTER Picking up bees. I know what to get | :11:16. | :11:23. | |
him for Christmas. A whole series. I can't believe he did that! | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
I tell you what, it is a good job he is not allergic to it. I am. Are | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
you? Yes. That's quite a horrific thing to get. | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
And seriously dangerous, but it looks like it is a little bit of | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
pain, but that could get a lot of swelling. Well, he will get a lot of | :11:47. | :11:59. | |
people writing in saying that he is a very gentle chap. He didn't want | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
to kill the bee. He just tried to rescue it! | :12:03. | :12:14. | |
Well, hopefully the bee is fine. He hope he hasn't run on it. That would | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
be a bit of a waste. He steps on it accidentally. Well, now, it is dead. | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
Once a bee stings you, it is dead. It pulls out its abdomen as well. I | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
mean indirectly, it is a shame the whole thing has been completely | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
futile! LAUGHTER | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
Not only has he upset his chance of making a Wimbledon final, but he has | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
killed the one thing he was trying to protect! | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
Oh dear. He swots it. Charming. Well, that was a bit more dramatic | :12:44. | :13:03. | |
than it looked like it was going to be for an opening game of a second | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
set! LAUGHTER | :13:09. | :13:10. | |
Benneteau, he is still cracking up laughing. He says, "What's going | :13:11. | :13:18. | |
on?" Yeah, I mean, all seriousness you | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
can see he is holding the bottle without putting his pressure on it. | :13:23. | :13:36. | |
I mean... I've run out of water. Not only that, there is a drastic | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
shortage of honeybees in cities as well. | :13:41. | :13:54. | |
Well, I think he left that and it wasn't proved to be the most prudent | :13:55. | :14:44. | |
of calls. Great reactions from Roger-Vasselin | :14:45. | :15:58. | |
and Klaasen was just trying to get himself across the court there, but | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
it was actually too much pace on the return from Ram and Roger-Vasselin | :16:04. | :16:04. | |
could just use that. Well, the last time Klaasen served, | :16:05. | :16:18. | |
he got broken. So a little bit of pressure on the South African. | :16:19. | :16:35. | |
A terrific rally. Lovely hitting from Roger-Vasselin and some great | :16:36. | :16:47. | |
defensive work. From Ram and Klaasen there, just moving in tandem, just | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
closing the angles down and the space. | :16:52. | :17:07. | |
It is so important to keep good balance at the net. Nice wide | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
stance, slightly wide at the shoulders, you just need to be able | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
to reach. You see how much of the court Klaasen with just half a step, | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
he could pretty much cover half of it. It looked like an easy shot, but | :17:22. | :17:30. | |
no real gaps appearing for him. He has got a terrific slice serve when | :17:31. | :17:32. | |
he lands it. A good, solid start by both teams | :17:33. | :18:27. | |
here at the beginning of the second set. Again, there you see that flat | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
hit from Benneteau and they have actually for the most part, Klaasen | :18:33. | :18:35. | |
and Ram defended that particular shot well. He doesn't have the | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
greatest lob. You can sit a little closer on the net. Not very quick | :18:40. | :18:52. | |
hands, Klaasen. Anything particularly you can do, John, to | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
improve the speed of your hands, the reaction? It is work, I mean, | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
basically, when I was like 16 years old, I went to the great Lou Hope's | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
camp in Spain and I had a big back-spin on my forehand volley. The | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
South Africans had back spins which were about an inch and they came | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
back at you and said we will get rid of that. The two of them were | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
volleying and I was on my own and every time I took my racket by the | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
time I hit the racket the next ball hit my chest. Believe me, after four | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
weeks my hands were quicker because otherwise I was getting peppered all | :19:33. | :19:35. | |
the time. And your chest was bruised? And my chest was definitely | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
bruised and my ego! It is a good little tip though. | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
Also, like you stand, if you get somebody to feed the ball and you're | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
standing on a wall or an a fence, you get the sense as you feed the | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
ball how quickly you naturally and instinctively want to take it back | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
bigger than you need to. Exactly. If you can see see your racket when you | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
take your hand back, you know you've taken the back too far. | :20:03. | :20:12. | |
I tell you what, he doesn't want to get down on his knee, does he? | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
Roger-Vasselin feels as though he wants to move quickly so that kind | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
of giraffe-like stance that he has at the net to be able to get across | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
rather than sometimes you will see the guy in the middle down on one | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
knee, but this way he can actually move, but his back is almost about | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
the height of the net. How Benneteau hasn't tagged him a couple of times | :20:36. | :20:43. | |
already is remarkable. He likes that shot. Of the second serve a little | :20:44. | :20:52. | |
bit more time as well. Not many one-handers have that shot in | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
doubles, the off backhand, that extreme angle that he gets into the | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
tramlines. He has got that three or four lines now. That's a tough shot | :21:00. | :21:01. | |
to make. It is a pretty pacy second serve at | :21:02. | :21:27. | |
108, isn't it? Oh, that was Vasselin's ball there | :21:28. | :21:49. | |
and he knows it. No communication. No communication. | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
Benneteau had no chance. The ball has past him by the time he reacted. | :21:54. | :22:02. | |
He just had time to breathe. A slight opening here now. | :22:03. | :22:10. | |
Oh what, a shot! That was a big point too to go down two break | :22:11. | :22:23. | |
points. They took up the right position, but what an angle and from | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
that the speed he got from that height. That's impressive. | :22:28. | :22:43. | |
So good. They move well together. When they | :22:44. | :22:53. | |
are up at the net, it is almost like they have got a six foot rope | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
attached to them at the waist and when one player moves on to hit a | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
volley on the right, the other player moves with him. Keeps that | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
group together not to give you too much space to hit the ball through. | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
You move with your player. Or with your partner. A lot of time in club | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
tennis you will see a player go to the tram line and the other person | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
will be covering the other side and there is a big gap down the middle. | :23:18. | :23:33. | |
What a point. That's what the crowd to have to see, this type of tennis. | :23:34. | :23:42. | |
A few nods in the crowd, they enjoyed that. I have never seen a | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
lobbed volley like that. He did well to get that one down and Klaasen | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
there, that was great feel because it had to be that good otherwise | :23:51. | :23:53. | |
Benneteau would have picked that one up easily. A good point. | :23:54. | :24:20. | |
It has happened twice in this game already, the community xation was a | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
bit off! They played so much tennis that they maybe a bit sick and tired | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
with one another and they are not communicating, they both ran on to | :24:33. | :24:33. | |
the same ball. Just a little wrong. And pressure | :24:34. | :24:57. | |
continues on Benneteau's serve. Well, let's see if he goes back into | :24:58. | :25:18. | |
the slightly weaker side of Ram on the backhand side or whether he | :25:19. | :25:20. | |
takes it into the strength. APPLAUSE | :25:21. | :25:34. | |
Just in this game we're seeing the lack of real acceleration from Ram a | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
couple of times to get to the net. Possibly they could have chiselled | :25:40. | :25:42. | |
out a break in the second set. The one where Benneteau ran around and | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
cracked it across court, Ram still a little bit behind the service line. | :25:48. | :25:49. | |
Quicker players would have been able to hit that volley at a decent | :25:50. | :26:00. | |
height. That's a big, big hold for Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin. Two | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
uncomfortable moments in terms of the communication between the two. | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
Some wonderful play from Ram and Klaasen and we are at a couple of | :26:11. | :26:13. | |
games a piece here. That's three rackets. That's at | :26:14. | :26:36. | |
least six I've counted and now he is checking the one that he has put | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
down. So I don't know how much science went into that and how much | :26:41. | :26:42. | |
was just feel! New balls. So maybe a tighter racket | :26:43. | :26:55. | |
for this service game. He just paid the price for not good | :26:56. | :27:17. | |
enough first volley there. Too short. It was one thing to block it | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
deep. It wasn't one to put away straightaway, but too short. | :27:23. | :27:57. | |
It is the second one in a row he has done there. | :27:58. | :28:26. | |
He is almost leaning over the net when he hits that. He is so close to | :28:27. | :28:28. | |
the net. Benneteau is a fairly flat hitter of | :28:29. | :28:53. | |
the ball. It is just the way he reacted afterwards. I think he | :28:54. | :28:55. | |
wasn't entirely convinced it was going in. | :28:56. | :29:08. | |
Steadied the ship early on in the second set. Klaasen and Ram. Ram, | :29:09. | :29:37. | |
who has been in the world's top 100 in doubles now since 2007. That's | :29:38. | :29:45. | |
when he finished year end at 63. His best year end rankings was last | :29:46. | :29:59. | |
year. The 33-year-old American finished 2009 inside the 100 in | :30:00. | :30:07. | |
singles as well at 89. I think now, we talked about it with the Bryans' | :30:08. | :30:12. | |
losing their domination, they're not, a few years back, it was how | :30:13. | :30:17. | |
many were they going to win? At lot of these teams have to be thinking | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
that they have a chance to reach the top now, it is wide open, Jamie | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
Murray is number one, I think he is going to lose his number one ranking | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
at the end this turningment, there is a lot of spaces where nobody is | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
really dominating and a couple of good solid performances in Grand | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
Slams, the number one ranking is up for grabs winning slams, there is a | :30:41. | :30:43. | |
lot of teams in the mix now, it is very difficult to predict at the | :30:44. | :30:45. | |
beginning of the tournament who was going to win a Grand Slam in | :30:46. | :30:52. | |
doubles. For a while it was the Bryans, unless they have a bad day, | :30:53. | :30:54. | |
but not anymore. There will be a few changes to the | :30:55. | :31:15. | |
rankings with these two, depending on the results. Roger-Vasselin is | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
predicted to be number eight as things stand at the moment in the | :31:19. | :31:25. | |
semifinals stage. And Rajeev Ram, who will have a career-high doubles | :31:26. | :31:30. | |
ranking as well after this tournament, guaranteed to be at | :31:31. | :31:32. | |
least 24. The most important thing you can do | :31:33. | :32:08. | |
on that pick-up is just keep a -- keep it low. There is the | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
possibility for a lob if you get into that sort of stage, the short | :32:14. | :32:19. | |
ball there, not much for Ram to do except try to get it through his | :32:20. | :32:31. | |
opponents. Benneteau had a very long arduous hold on serve and he sees | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
his partner doing it in a far more simpler fashion here, three games | :32:36. | :32:42. | |
all. That was a great shot. Plus also | :32:43. | :33:57. | |
good recognition that he has just served a double fault and there is a | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
chance that second serve is not going to necessarily be slow, but it | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
will not necessarily go straight to the line and feel as confident. He | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
is just writing some notes down, one of the coaches who likes to do that | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
almost every single point, Jeff Coetzee, to remind himself what | :34:16. | :34:29. | |
You see the second serve come in and you can see he made that initial | :34:30. | :34:50. | |
move to his right hand side. Big trouble now. | :34:51. | :35:11. | |
That was just pressure. Ram swings his racket at fresh air and he | :35:12. | :35:21. | |
wishes he had been swinging at fresh air when he touched the ball. | :35:22. | :35:30. | |
Because that was heading over the baseline, but that is pressure at | :35:31. | :35:35. | |
the moment. There is no room for error but unfortunately it was an | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
error in judgment in the end. That was going miles out. 0-40, and in | :35:40. | :35:46. | |
Men's Doubles you can still claw that back and we saw that in the | :35:47. | :35:50. | |
first set when they recovered from 0-40, but this one here is going way | :35:51. | :35:56. | |
out. Unfortunately now they are in big trouble here. Nice balance on | :35:57. | :36:05. | |
that forehand, just the return serve of the French team, they have just | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
been more solid. They have combined better today. With Ram and Klaasen | :36:10. | :36:17. | |
there is too much where one has played well, one has dropped off a | :36:18. | :36:20. | |
little bit, and we have not combined at the same time as much as the | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
French couple have. They look very confident now, as they should be, | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
asset and a break. Still a lot of work to do, made you. -- a set and a | :36:31. | :36:46. | |
A day for smearing on the sun lotion. | :36:47. | :37:19. | |
Lightning fast, Klaasen, but just couldn't get enough on anything | :37:20. | :37:26. | |
there really to keep the French team at bay. Good hands, keeping them in | :37:27. | :37:37. | |
this rally, until this little bit of subtlety from Benneteau. | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
APPLAUSE Game, Benneteau, Roger-Vasselin. | :37:43. | :38:19. | |
Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin lead 5-3, second set. Not unlike a | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
fastball in cricket, Benneteau has even a sort of medium paced one out | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
wide that time, and you can see Klaasen was stretching for it, | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
reaching for it, swinging for the vigour of serve, and ended up a lot | :38:33. | :38:35. | |
further in front than he would have liked and attracted wide -- fast | :38:36. | :38:42. | |
bowler in cricket. All they can do now is just try to | :38:43. | :39:01. | |
keep the second set alight and just give themselves one more chance to | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
break the French team. They are right on the cost of being down 2-0 | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
here in the semifinals. -- on the cusp. That was | :39:10. | :39:29. | |
dropped by Roger-Vasselin's father, I believe. Bad hands. He will be | :39:30. | :39:30. | |
criticised for that. Open court. Not able to land it that | :39:31. | :40:02. | |
time. That is Bryan Smith on the right of Jeff Coetzee, Ram's coach. | :40:03. | :40:19. | |
Back in 2002, Rajeev Ram, with Brian Baker, a wonderful junior and also a | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
pretty good professional. If he could just have stayed healthy, one | :40:26. | :40:28. | |
wonders what his career would have looked like. | :40:29. | :40:48. | |
APPLAUSE Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin lead | :40:49. | :40:51. | |
5-4. Second set. And one set to love. The best laid plans | :40:52. | :41:13. | |
for that team, John, not going to plan. I think you are right. They | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
just look more solid, the French team, more of a unit together. They | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
just seem to be combining at the right times, stringing winners | :41:22. | :41:29. | |
together at the right time, combining. Ram and Klaasen have had | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
good periods but not at the same time, and it is frustrating for | :41:36. | :41:38. | |
them, but the French team looked very solid now. Their returns of | :41:39. | :41:44. | |
serve, just a little bit better. Holding serve a little more | :41:45. | :41:46. | |
comfortably. A good performance. So the onus will fall on | :41:47. | :42:12. | |
Roger-Vasselin to take a 2-0 sets lead for his team. Ram is | :42:13. | :42:31. | |
challenging this one, but not sure he will get much joy, but it is | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
desperate times for Ram and Klaasen right now. But worthy of a | :42:39. | :42:51. | |
challenge. Good defensive play, both Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin closing | :42:52. | :42:54. | |
that gap down the middle. Not easy to know which one will go at that | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
particular stage. It was a good fit. Better both than none. -- good hit. | :43:00. | :43:13. | |
APPLAUSE I am not sure, actually, the lob, as | :43:14. | :43:23. | |
good as that was, was the right shot for Klaasen, because there was only | :43:24. | :43:26. | |
one place the Frenchman could go and that was to drop a bit deeper away | :43:27. | :43:29. | |
from the net. He had a bit of space in the forecourt to try to did it | :43:30. | :43:43. | |
down and follow it in. -- dip it down. That is beautiful serving. | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
Kind of an unorthodox action as well, the swing from Roger-Vasselin, | :43:49. | :43:51. | |
but he gets plenty of pace on it and because of that as well it is | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
difficult to read. We have seen how he can cut it out wide. So you have | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
to guard against that as well. The set points. -- three set points. | :44:00. | :44:10. | |
That brings up a 2-0 sets lead for the French pairing. Given their | :44:11. | :44:22. | |
exploits in the previous round they will be taking nothing for granted | :44:23. | :44:28. | |
because they have been pushed the distance, but for Klaasen and Ram | :44:29. | :44:31. | |
this is uncharted territory, of course, right from the fact they | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
dropped the opening set here, had not lost a set coming in, but they | :44:36. | :44:42. | |
have not really had an answer to the pinpoint serving for the majority of | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
this match, as you can see from Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin's | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
fantastic serving percentages on the first serve, and second serve points | :44:52. | :44:57. | |
really being the stumbling block for Klaasen and Ram. Yes, that has gone | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
down from the first set. That was not that great for Klaasen and Ram | :45:03. | :45:07. | |
there, but now it is shocking. If they missed the first survey are in | :45:08. | :45:10. | |
big trouble almost every time and the French have upped the returns of | :45:11. | :45:20. | |
serve, reading the ball better and hitting it at the right time. They | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
look like Grand Slam winners. I know they have won one. They have that | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
are of confidence about them. Very confident before, walking on court, | :45:29. | :45:33. | |
and a bit of trouble in that first set, but they did not let it worry | :45:34. | :45:39. | |
them at all -- aura of confidence. They knew they had a whale to go and | :45:40. | :45:52. | |
they looked confident. Julien's brother, he will be pretty happy | :45:53. | :45:55. | |
with the coaching job he has put in for this one. They had three first | :45:56. | :46:05. | |
match defeats in Acapulco and Indian Wells, turned it around in Miami. | :46:06. | :46:16. | |
APPLAUSE Charging up there then he thought | :46:17. | :46:19. | |
better of it and charge the other way! | :46:20. | :46:20. | |
LAUGHTER I thought, what is he doing there, | :46:21. | :46:32. | |
when he started charging towards it? He was trying to be about as brave | :46:33. | :46:36. | |
as you could possibly be on a tennis court, then he decided he would flee | :46:37. | :46:39. | |
the scene! LAUGHTER | :46:40. | :46:40. | |
He definitely thought better of it. That was a good get from | :46:41. | :46:58. | |
Roger-Vasselin, just to keep it in play. | :46:59. | :47:33. | |
You don't get the piece of ground strokes in the doubles but you | :47:34. | :47:38. | |
certainly get a sense that the French team have a little bit more | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
miles per hour on the balls the firing in when they have that | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
chance. -- that they are firing A change of ends, in terms of where | :47:48. | :48:10. | |
he has been serving, Ram, a nice hold of serve. Through some of their | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
results, that final appearance getting their year underway for | :48:16. | :48:18. | |
Klaasen and Ram, but a tough lost for them at the French of course, | :48:19. | :48:33. | |
two former partners, due to rack -- Buturac, and the long-term partner | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
for Rajeev Ram, who won three titles with him. When is a hat not a hat? | :48:38. | :48:45. | |
When it is an umbrella! That is a big bit of shade she is underneath, | :48:46. | :48:47. | |
needed today. Game - Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin. | :48:48. | :50:25. | |
1-1, third set. Verbal encouragement from Ram to his | :50:26. | :53:06. | |
partner there. "Come On," out on the line and need your a note of | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
prestige for this team as well. They have had a wonderful run on the | :53:10. | :53:15. | |
grass and they do not want to stop here. Raven Klaasen comedy is a | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
bubbly sort of personality. I spent some time with him last year -- | :53:22. | :53:29. | |
Klaasen, he is. He was giving him help, and he was great on the team, | :53:30. | :53:34. | |
he has that team spirit that you want. Although they are losing now, | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
you will be good, speaking to his partner, encouraging him the whole | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
time. At half-time he used to do dancing with older kids on the | :53:45. | :53:48. | |
court. He is a good dancer as well. -- with all the kids. But he is a | :53:49. | :53:57. | |
great personality and he will still be in this match, encouraging his | :53:58. | :54:10. | |
partner. We have seen that it is wafer thin, how that difference in | :54:11. | :54:13. | |
particular in doubles can be, and how things can turn around, and we | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
even saw that in the singles yesterday. The difference has been | :54:17. | :54:22. | |
on a razor's edge. Well, he had to pit a winner and he | :54:23. | :54:43. | |
just could not get his feet to read the ball was. A good return, again, | :54:44. | :54:50. | |
just making Benneteau thing a little bit about backing away from the net | :54:51. | :54:55. | |
-- hit a winner. Very condensed there, in terms of the angles | :54:56. | :55:00. | |
available for Klaasen to try and exploit. -- for Ram to try and | :55:01. | :55:14. | |
exploit. Has served well, hasn't he? He picks sports well. Not the | :55:15. | :55:20. | |
biggest server, as you said. Looks awkward... | :55:21. | :55:31. | |
Picks spots well. A real firecracker, that forehand of Ram, | :55:32. | :55:42. | |
isn't it? Not a lot of numbers but he has managed to produce today. | :55:43. | :55:53. | |
A bit excited there. A good forehand and a good return. Usually the heat | :55:54. | :56:03. | |
seeker, well, that was the head seeker! | :56:04. | :56:22. | |
He has got some pace on that shot. Really sort of relaxed, lazy, | :56:23. | :56:38. | |
almost, isn't it? But when he connects with the ball, it just | :56:39. | :56:54. | |
fires through. Gorgeous. APPLAUSE | :56:55. | :57:05. | |
He made that look incredibly easy, Benneteau, didn't he? He really did. | :57:06. | :57:10. | |
And Klaasen charging in there as well was quick, and he just | :57:11. | :57:14. | |
delicately dropped that one short. You can see, he can't get near it. | :57:15. | :57:21. | |
That was lovely. Nice open faced, the racket back as the ball... The | :57:22. | :57:33. | |
strength just killing the pace. What a shot. The most had to drag out | :57:34. | :57:41. | |
from behind him and you can understand why Klaasen was trying to | :57:42. | :57:44. | |
get across the court. From there it looked that the angle for sure was | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
for the offhand back return and how much left they get into that to try | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
to drag it up the line. Fantastic from Roger-Vasselin. -- he almost | :57:54. | :58:03. | |
had to drag it out. Good stretch. He would have been aware, because he is | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
the sort of player who reads those situations well, that the opponents | :58:08. | :58:12. | |
would have been closing in. Expecting something, sure. It had to | :58:13. | :58:14. | |
be good, and was. That is one of those shots that both | :58:15. | :58:34. | |
players wanted, that next ball. Roger-Vasselin was ready for the | :58:35. | :58:38. | |
backhand and Benneteau called him off. | :58:39. | :58:57. | |
SLOW CLAPPING Always worth a challenge when it is | :58:58. | :59:51. | |
that it is, but it goes the -- that way, as does the game. | :59:52. | :00:05. | |
They are just having a minor discussion about tactics or, | :00:06. | :00:12. | |
perhaps, they could do better on the return game and they will be buoyed | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
of going into this game given how close they got last time around. | :00:17. | :00:36. | |
Two fairly high chronic shots there. Champagne and strawberries. The fan | :00:37. | :00:49. | |
indicating the heat that is around today. | :00:50. | :01:19. | |
Definitely decided a view more logs were needed here, Ram. That one was | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
a definite ploy. One of his finest returns for a | :01:26. | :01:55. | |
while. The fastest serve of the day at 105 | :01:56. | :02:13. | |
from Benneteau. They came, it is the Benneteau | :02:14. | :02:48. | |
server that is under siege, being attacked by Ram and Klaasen. | :02:49. | :03:05. | |
What a point. Benneteau did so well closing on the net at one stage but | :03:06. | :03:19. | |
he just couldn't quite move to a poll that was hanging there. That | :03:20. | :03:29. | |
was a defensive folly. Klaasen and Ram taking advantage of it. Can they | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
take advantage of some of this break point? That was a great move from | :03:34. | :03:56. | |
Klaasen. He picked his point and, he just came out of that forehand, | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
lifted his body up. It was a good return. | :04:02. | :04:48. | |
Line, serve, line, return. This was a superb second serve. It couldn't | :04:49. | :05:01. | |
have gotten much closer to the line than that. A good return and it | :05:02. | :05:03. | |
across. -- drag it across. Relying on the place to force the | :05:04. | :05:28. | |
ball behind Ram, he was trying to pull it from behind him. | :05:29. | :05:48. | |
Just cannot quite make it happened at the moment. That was another good | :05:49. | :05:59. | |
game on the Benneteau server. Some solid defence on the break point, | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
especially the pavement from Roger-Vasselin. He closed down the | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
gap. They have just played the big points that so far. I think the | :06:10. | :06:19. | |
actual match is closer than 7-5, 6-4. It feels closer. | :06:20. | :07:37. | |
The ball has just been thrown back to the back of the court behind the | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
Benneteau. He almost had his partner with the | :07:45. | :08:30. | |
first serve. He was certainly trying to get Roger-Vasselin with that | :08:31. | :08:31. | |
drive. I think Ram is a little irritated | :08:32. | :09:06. | |
with Roger-Vasselin because it was him who put his hand up because the | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
ball came in behind Benneteau and the Benneteau made a good return and | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
they felt as though it was Ram who highlighted the fact to the umpire | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
that the ball had been thrown back in there. It is a moot point to be | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
honest because at 40- love it was never going to change the outcome of | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
that game and the set. Sometimes as a player you are looking for | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
something to hang your hat on for a bit of extra intensity and maybe | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
that is what he wants, a bit of anger to get himself to the point | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
where he can make it happen. Late night? It could still be a bit | :09:46. | :09:59. | |
evening here, such is the wafer thin difference between these two teams. | :10:00. | :10:27. | |
I think he is just to -- checking the rules about bathroom breaks. | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
They are allowed to in the course of a five set match. One over the | :10:35. | :10:47. | |
course of a best-of-3. I did a little survey at Indian Wells about | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
the nuances in terms of rules on the tour and it was amazing how many | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
people, including some of the top ten didn't know all of the release, | :10:58. | :11:14. | |
precisely. Edge all rooms. Making sure that the ball is coming back. | :11:15. | :12:32. | |
Just took off a fraction too late. That is just a downside for him, | :12:33. | :12:43. | |
just not that dynamic movement he has, the explosive seat. He has the | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
time it so well. He can reach balls, but in terms of that movement at the | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
net that he would like, it is not always as easy for him. | :12:54. | :13:12. | |
A good job there. -- jump. The business end of the set. | :13:13. | :14:19. | |
Some are pretty quick thinking there. Unfortunately for Klaasen, it | :14:20. | :14:27. | |
was almost too quick for his own good. He couldn't see what was | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
coming and tried to push off for that. | :14:32. | :14:49. | |
Once again, so close to the net on those follies. Literally on top of | :14:50. | :15:01. | |
the net when those. -- when they hit films. A beautiful point. | :15:02. | :15:16. | |
Outstanding. Outstanding play from Klaasen. | :15:17. | :15:32. | |
Some quick hands in that game. In that last point in particular from | :15:33. | :15:46. | |
Klaasen. A good half-volley. I thought he was going to put that one | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
away but it came back and he reacted quickly and stayed nice and low on | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
the half-volley. He closed in and there wasn't much of a gap, followed | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
the ball, kept his feet moving into the volley. Excellent. Some of those | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
quick reflexes, you see the double players in their drills where they | :16:07. | :16:09. | |
have coaches firing balls at them from about eight feet away and they | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
are standing on top of the net and just blasting Tomahawks at them at | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
100 miles an hour and they just stand there and reflects them off | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
and you think, how many of those shots or a realistically going to | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
get in a match but sometimes two or three big ones on big points can | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
make the difference between winning or losing, those green points. -- | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
those reaction points. He was going with the soft tip to | :16:39. | :17:55. | |
use his speed to get up the court and get something higher above the | :17:56. | :17:58. | |
net to close in what he called the tape on the way to his intended | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
target. Benneteau will be delighted to get an easy service game. He | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
hasn't really had one in this set so far. | :18:09. | :18:18. | |
A great second serve. But had a bit of everything, accuracy, bounce. | :18:19. | :18:50. | |
I thought he was going to head guard over for a second. -- head start | :18:51. | :19:03. | |
over. If they could somehow sneaked into this tie-break. They haven't | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
lost a tie-break in this championship, Klaasen and Ram. They | :19:10. | :19:11. | |
will be confident if they get there. He gets quite a bit of a spin on his | :19:12. | :19:53. | |
second serve. It kicks up high. That was a beautiful serve down the | :19:54. | :20:05. | |
middle. Brilliant. That is just so good. It is the way he hates and | :20:06. | :20:16. | |
moves. He takes the ball in the air. He just runs in to get there. Two | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
quick steps to get the folly nice and high, not letting it drop too | :20:24. | :20:25. | |
low. Benneteau just couldn't quite find | :20:26. | :20:40. | |
the middle of the racket. Couldn't capitalise on a great return from | :20:41. | :20:47. | |
his opponent, his partner rather. I am not sure what he was trying to do | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
there, Benneteau, trying to pace it down though? That was an | :20:53. | :20:53. | |
opportunity. If you watch Ram here, he has gone | :20:54. | :21:33. | |
wide to sell him the dummy and then he has too much weight on the right | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
leg and couldn't get himself back. It passed him at quite a close | :21:39. | :21:40. | |
range. The worst thing you can do after | :21:41. | :22:03. | |
that is stand still and he helps his partner with nice cross. Benneteau | :22:04. | :22:14. | |
isn't going to be feeling that great sitting down. There was a couple of | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
half chances for him in that game and he is the one shaking his head. | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
He knows he didn't quite perform as he knows he can. He may have failed | :22:23. | :22:33. | |
at the final hurdle in single event but he has won ten double events, | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
including the French Open. He has done it with a number of different | :22:39. | :22:45. | |
partners. He has been the common denominator. He did it with Mahut | :22:46. | :22:56. | |
and Clement. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He is the only non-French player he has | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
played with and won a title. At least he has the record, Benneteau. | :23:02. | :23:08. | |
A record is a record. I like the way you think. A glass half. -- have | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
food. -- a glass half-full. A bit of a wild forehand error. He | :23:15. | :23:56. | |
is having a little bit of a let down, Benneteau. If Klaasen and Ram | :23:57. | :24:04. | |
can direct a bit of traffic to him... He is the eldest on the | :24:05. | :24:12. | |
court. The 34-year-old, Benneteau. They could grab this set before it | :24:13. | :24:19. | |
gets to the break. It was an OK serve and an OK serve in the semis | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
of Wimbledon doesn't get you the point and Klaasen used the angle he | :24:25. | :24:35. | |
was given to great effect. That was brilliant. Return winners flowing of | :24:36. | :24:47. | |
the Ram and Klaasen rackets. Here we are with three set points. They have | :24:48. | :24:59. | |
yet to break. They have had five chances until now. | :25:00. | :25:12. | |
He got awfully lucky there. That was brave. That was very lucky. It ended | :25:13. | :25:23. | |
up in a good serif because the ball came off his strings in such a funny | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
way. It kicked up higher. That was a nervous second serve. What a | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
half-volley. That was brilliant. He did a lot of good things there. | :25:40. | :26:00. | |
He had to keeping off Ram's forehand. | :26:01. | :26:29. | |
They deserve set for Klaasen and Ram at the end. That was some terrific | :26:30. | :26:37. | |
renin -- returning to give themselves and their chances. They | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
just kept plugging away on their last point. That is the first time | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
we have seen their composure go a little bit off and he was mad at | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
himself, Ram. He just slipped away in those last few games. He looks | :26:53. | :27:02. | |
like he is tired mentally. They are jogging off here. They are trying to | :27:03. | :27:10. | |
get back out before the two-minute call is given at the end of the set. | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
There is some wonderful returning. As much as they will be disappointed | :27:16. | :27:22. | |
at a little fatigued mentally, given the 25 set losses back they have | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
had, they are still up two sets, which is what they have got to | :27:28. | :27:34. | |
remind themselves. You can see that third set where they started holding | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
the second points, in the first to set that was way down. They have | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
increased their return game and they have finally got the break point. | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
They had for chances and they finally got it. Roger-Vasselin | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
dipped with his return of serve in that set. He didn't put enough | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
pressure on his opponents and at the end of Benneteau in particular just | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
lost his game a little bit, lost his way. | :28:05. | :28:19. | |
There is Roger-Vasselin's father in the Black cap. | :28:20. | :29:18. | |
He loves to head that a double handed down the line, | :29:19. | :30:23. | |
Roger-Vasselin. Class and Ram not giving him that space as often now. | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
He doesn't have as good an off return as Ram has produced. They | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
have shot that particular corridor of success. | :30:33. | :30:39. | |
The French can get a little quiet on returns they are always fairly | :30:40. | :30:47. | |
aggressive but not always consistent. | :30:48. | :30:52. | |
The French can get a little quiet on returns - | :30:53. | :30:54. | |
they are always fairly aggressive but not | :30:55. | :30:56. | |
He isn't the tallest man, the shortest on court, but he more than | :30:57. | :31:04. | |
makes up for that in his liveliness and quick thinking around the court. | :31:05. | :31:11. | |
This is a big moment coming up for the French team. The wind is very | :31:12. | :31:17. | |
much in Klaasen's and Ram's sails. They are going to have to start | :31:18. | :32:00. | |
either moving that ball into Ram's body or into the floor because he | :32:01. | :32:03. | |
has found a lovely groove on that backhand. He has had to go in there | :32:04. | :32:16. | |
at about 120, to 124 to get what he is looking for. Anything smaller of | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
the T there, and Ram has been devastating with that return. -- up | :32:21. | :32:27. | |
the T. Started brightly but Benneteau and | :32:28. | :33:39. | |
Roger-Vasselin are closing the door firmly. | :33:40. | :34:36. | |
Benneteau is shrugging his shoulders and getting deeply frustrated. They | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
just cannot get their teeth into any of these returning games right now, | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
and credit to Klaasen and Ram, who are serving beautifully. | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
APPLAUSE They served unbelievably well | :34:51. | :35:07. | |
against the brothers. That one was short. | :35:08. | :35:34. | |
Superb! How good were the hands? From that man, Roger-Vasselin? | :35:35. | :36:01. | |
2-1 up, fourth set. They trailed by one set to two. Sue SUE BARKER: We | :36:02. | :36:13. | |
will be leaving this match on Court One to join the Williams sisters in | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
their match, so if you want to continue watching, you can with the | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
red button. If you want to continue watching | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
this game, use the red button. Over on BBC One we are watching the | :36:25. | :36:27. | |
doubles match on Centre Court between the number one seeds, | :36:28. | :36:35. | |
Herbert and Mahut, who were up in the second against Huey and Mirnyi. | :36:36. | :36:42. | |
That matches live on BBC One. But over on Court 17, the wheelchair | :36:43. | :36:45. | |
singles are here at Wimbledon for the very first time. The British | :36:46. | :36:49. | |
number one was so excited about this. Gordon Reid, saying he is | :36:50. | :37:06. | |
ready to rumble against Nicholas Feifer. And he is one set up, after | :37:07. | :37:14. | |
the first set. -- Nicolas Feifer. What we are heading to Court Number | :37:15. | :37:20. | |
Two to see the Williams sisters. Serena winning and Venus losing in | :37:21. | :37:28. | |
the semifinals. They are up against Elena | :37:29. | :37:54. | |
Our first is of the match, coming off the racket of the left-hander | :37:55. | :38:30. | |
from Russia, who resides in Moscow, from Sochi, and she is looking for | :38:31. | :38:41. | |
revenge over Serena. Elena Vesnina. That will settle the nerves for | :38:42. | :38:50. | |
these two. A little out of sorts as they lost their first service game. | :38:51. | :38:57. | |
Maybe it is just getting a score on the board, Louise, that will get | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
them into this match, because they do not want it to slip away so | :39:03. | :39:09. | |
quickly yes, she did not bring her absolute best but she has played a | :39:10. | :39:13. | |
lot of matches, a lot of time on court. They pulled out of the Mixed | :39:14. | :39:18. | |
Doubles last night. So she would have a little bit more energy and | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
focus but she has just had so much time on court. That was really a bit | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
of a factor in that match today, but she does have to get the energy up. | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
She has to start working really hard here, and I think the way forward | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
with the Williams sisters is to be nice and aggressive, brave at the | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
net, trying to come forward even if the Williams sisters try to blast | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
through them. They have to really all that net. That is easier said | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
than done, isn't it, against these two? Well, it is just intimidation. | :39:53. | :40:01. | |
Yes. 22 doubles titles to Serena's name, and 21 to Venus. I can see | :40:02. | :40:10. | |
this question coming up later, Louise... From that position it is | :40:11. | :40:22. | |
so hard, just physically imposing, the Williams sisters. They just | :40:23. | :40:29. | |
leave no gaps to sit through. The play from them, though, just to keep | :40:30. | :40:31. | |
that ball short. Dan, I am not good at trivia, so | :40:32. | :40:51. | |
make it an easy one. No, it is a tough one. Venus was there, found | :40:52. | :41:06. | |
the springs. Maybe a little bit too much power or that swing from | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
Vesnina. The question will be, because Serena has won one more | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
title than Venus, would you say? Yes. Who did she win it with? They | :41:18. | :41:28. | |
have won 21 titles together. Serena has one more doubles title to her | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
name. I will give you a clue... This will not help you at all, actually. | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
It was in 2002. LAUGHTER | :41:37. | :41:47. | |
Othello American. -- A fellow American. Lindsay Davenport? | :41:48. | :42:01. | |
Super rally! Well played! What a great point there. 14 shots. Hard to | :42:02. | :42:17. | |
stay in a rally for 14 shots against the Williams sisters. Great thinking | :42:18. | :42:24. | |
here from Vesnina, and again at horrific athlete, Serena, she gets | :42:25. | :42:26. | |
back to easy. -- eight great shot from Makarova. I will | :42:27. | :42:54. | |
actually say that it was Lisa Raymond. It was Alexandra Stevenson | :42:55. | :43:01. | |
back into those and two, the only doubles titles she has claimed | :43:02. | :43:12. | |
without Venus by her side. This time Venus deciding to take charge of the | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
net. She moves so well and because of those long weavers, she can cover | :43:18. | :43:24. | |
so much ground along that net. She has her game face on for this | :43:25. | :43:26. | |
doubles. APPLAUSE | :43:27. | :43:54. | |
That is where she is not at her best, Serena. Coming in Lowell. She | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
likes it up a little bit higher we have seen throughout this match | :44:01. | :44:07. | |
already the drive volley. Another break point. Snuffed out immediately | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
with a big serve out wide, from Serena. They love it. Just so cool. | :44:13. | :44:22. | |
She makes that 113 mph look easy, doesn't she? It was just a warm up | :44:23. | :44:23. | |
serve. Serena has the ability to hit pretty | :44:24. | :44:47. | |
much any served she wants to. Big flat first serves, getting the most | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
pace, you can slice across it, come over the top for top-spin. There you | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
go. A little bit of slice on that one. Not quite as fast as | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
previously, but the slice helping her. Her accuracy is spot-on. Having | :45:02. | :45:10. | |
saved a couple of break points, they take a 3-1 lead. Is that their mum | :45:11. | :45:19. | |
at the back, in front of Patrick Mouratoglou, and | :45:20. | :45:41. | |
again Oracene must be brimming with pride to see them out here. To see | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
them competing out there, the semifinals, it been special. Good | :45:47. | :45:56. | |
placement from Elena there. Their chemistry is a big part of their | :45:57. | :45:59. | |
game and they really have to lift it to be part of this match, keep their | :46:00. | :46:02. | |
energy and positivity high. APPLAUSE | :46:03. | :46:21. | |
I'm not sure how much she knew about that one, because Serena just | :46:22. | :46:27. | |
thumped this one straight at her! She is just thanking her lucky stars | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
she connected with the racket there because that could have been a | :46:32. | :46:34. | |
knockout. We might have had to call the trainer, get the easy chart, but | :46:35. | :46:41. | |
Serena, the target practice again. Well left. I think this will play a | :46:42. | :46:52. | |
part as well, giving the Williams sisters different looks. | :46:53. | :46:55. | |
Straightaway we can see a bit of a distraction factor there. A few | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
returns, which they were not doing earlier on. | :47:00. | :47:54. | |
Another heavy first serve from Vesnina in that game. They are still | :47:55. | :48:07. | |
behind in the game. Well, that was important, right there, just to fix | :48:08. | :48:11. | |
that service came up for it First Minister's Questions, and I really | :48:12. | :48:15. | |
like to straightaway they started thinking tactical smart sense there | :48:16. | :48:29. | |
-- just affects that service game up. 76%, first serves four Vesnina | :48:30. | :48:37. | |
and Makarova, and I think that is high. I think they are converting | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
one or two match of the first serves -- for Vesnina. A big difference in | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
numbers there. Again, they have just got to keep their energy high, keep | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
this great attitude they have on court. They combine really well, | :48:52. | :48:54. | |
these two. They have a little bit of a different style in their games, | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
one with a bit more chic, can use that left wing a bit better, and | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
then Vesnina can play really fast through the court and is super | :49:05. | :49:07. | |
effective. They just know each other's game so well. Very good | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
friends, these two, as well. Vesnina got married in November. And | :49:13. | :49:19. | |
Ekaterina was one of her bridesmaids. | :49:20. | :49:35. | |
That is a good move! Great stuff from Vesnina. That is a part of her | :49:36. | :49:43. | |
game that is really nice, actually. Watching this great volley here, but | :49:44. | :49:45. | |
the relationships these players build in doubles, they last forever, | :49:46. | :49:53. | |
the friendships. They are still very good friends. It is a game for life, | :49:54. | :49:54. | |
tennis. Now, and opening with Venus's serve. | :49:55. | :50:24. | |
Yes, it just decelerated a little bit there. You would have to think | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
these opportunities are going to be few and far between. Can they make | :50:29. | :50:38. | |
it count? Venus stands very close to that centreline. I would get her to | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
move across maybe one or two feet, just to get a different look on that | :50:44. | :50:58. | |
white one. Good hit! -- -- that wide one. I am not sure if Makarova | :50:59. | :51:05. | |
spotted that, but good for him. Venus facing the break points. -- | :51:06. | :51:14. | |
good for him. Just a bit of a sluggish game there | :51:15. | :51:44. | |
from Venus. Do you think her singles suffered a little from the fact that | :51:45. | :51:49. | |
she was playing the doubles as well this tournament? She is 36 years of | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
age, 36 years young, we should point out, still in great shape, but | :51:55. | :51:59. | |
surely she cannot have as much in her as she used to have. Perhaps. | :52:00. | :52:12. | |
She does have the Sjogren's syndrome, but we really do not know | :52:13. | :52:24. | |
how that affects on a day to day basis. She lost 6-4, 6-4, just a | :52:25. | :52:31. | |
little earlier, about one hour and a half ago, to Angelique Kerber. I do | :52:32. | :52:42. | |
not know if it is scientifically proven but I think these left serves | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
school wider than the rate once -- Sjogren's syndrome. It is wicked. -- | :52:47. | :53:00. | |
these left serves go wider than the right ones. Yes, that would be an | :53:01. | :53:05. | |
interesting study to look at. Would it really be interesting? I think | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
so. Hawk-Eye could work that out very quickly. Let's get those boys | :53:10. | :53:18. | |
onto it. Hope impressive was that from Makarova? One break back. And | :53:19. | :53:27. | |
emphatic cold. It means they are ahead for the first time in this | :53:28. | :53:35. | |
opening set -- an emphatic hold. They have been partners for four | :53:36. | :53:39. | |
years, regular doubles partners, compared to the 25 to 30 years that | :53:40. | :53:46. | |
Venus and Serena have been sharing a tennis court! But it is a | :53:47. | :53:50. | |
combination, for many reasons, that stands them in very good stead. And | :53:51. | :53:58. | |
they have had six wins, tournament wins, sorry, I beg your pardon, five | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
tournament wins together. Two Grand Slams, and that is not to be snuffed | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
out, for any combination. Absolutely. What I love about this | :54:10. | :54:16. | |
pair is they are constantly working together, extremely professional, | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
always looking for combinations, for patterns, changing things up, they | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
have a relentlessly positive attitude towards everything they do | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
and, yes, just a chemistry, it adds that value. You see them having | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
lunch together. You know, they really do have a true friendship. | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
Which, in the moments, when the stress is there, they can look | :54:39. | :54:41. | |
around and just have that little smile, that sense of confidence that | :54:42. | :54:47. | |
makes a big difference. And they have each other's backs, don't they? | :54:48. | :54:49. | |
And they are ahead here. And they have each others' | :54:50. | :54:55. | |
backs, don't they? And of course on the other hand of | :54:56. | :55:09. | |
the Williams sisters also have this incredible relationship and bond, | :55:10. | :55:16. | |
but they are not out there week two-week working on their doubles | :55:17. | :55:19. | |
skills, their positioning and understanding of what each other is | :55:20. | :55:23. | |
doing. They are just so good. Deeply incredible singles in doubles. -- | :55:24. | :55:31. | |
they can play incredible single in doubles. In the French Open the lost | :55:32. | :55:37. | |
in the last 16, did Venus and Serena. Did not play at all together | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
last season. She just managed to stretch that wide! And she got | :55:43. | :55:48. | |
enough on it to nudge it down the line, and that is all they did. This | :55:49. | :55:52. | |
is a smart option always with the Williams sisters. They tend to cover | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
the middle really well. They like to cross. The hard thing is to try to | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
go line against a server such as Serena Williams. | :56:00. | :56:45. | |
M's the aces for the Williams. Just the one double. -- that is the | :56:46. | :56:54. | |
122 miles per hour, as you can see over Serena's shoulder there. | :56:55. | :57:08. | |
APPLAUSE Just having a bit of a laugh there. | :57:09. | :57:13. | |
Makarova saying that one came through likeability. Sometimes you | :57:14. | :57:20. | |
either have to laugh or cry. -- like a bullet. That is great. Good | :57:21. | :57:28. | |
serving there from Serena. Don't you think women have the right to do | :57:29. | :57:35. | |
both at the same time, though, Dan? Do not draw me into those kind of | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
conversations! Very emotional specimens. We can laugh and cry, and | :57:40. | :57:45. | |
still be confused, the good point about being a woman! So much | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
material there that I am just not going to get into... Yes, solid. It | :57:52. | :58:02. | |
is all about just measuring the time, waiting for the right moment. | :58:03. | :58:06. | |
You can see your opponent, just a little under stress, the quality, | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
and you can see Serena's ball setting up a little bit higher. | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
Great timing. I would like to see her take one more step closer, | :58:19. | :58:25. | |
because of that comes with a hard at you and you don't quite get a clean | :58:26. | :58:28. | |
hit it will just go straight into the net. | :58:29. | :58:42. | |
Serena apologising... You just wouldn't want to be right now in | :58:43. | :58:56. | |
this situation, would you, Dan? With Williams, the wall coming in, just | :58:57. | :58:59. | |
moving forwards, racket swinging everywhere. As you say, it is bone | :59:00. | :59:07. | |
fide play in doubles, coming straight at your opponent. | :59:08. | :59:19. | |
APPLAUSE Makarova faking their and just | :59:20. | :59:33. | |
goading Serena into hitting one down the line. Remember, she had crossed | :59:34. | :59:36. | |
previously on that side. You have to be brave and take this formation up, | :59:37. | :59:42. | |
if you're the net player. The key is to get low and keep your head down. | :59:43. | :59:52. | |
A superb point again. Well played, from Ekaterina Makarova. And the | :59:53. | :00:00. | |
beauty of playing that formation is that you can go either way. | :00:01. | :00:04. | |
Brilliant, but again I would like to just take one more step closer | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
because that first shot she had, had she been a little higher or closer | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
to the net, I think she could have just found a better angle. | :00:13. | :00:26. | |
You do feel like you are a little bit at the ferry day. You have to be | :00:27. | :00:33. | |
brave laying that close to the net but when you are facing Serena and | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
Venus, extra care each is required. -- playing. | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
The formation served them well in that game. | :00:44. | :00:56. | |
The Williams sisters will have to come out and serve to stay in this | :00:57. | :01:06. | |
opener. Damn, you talk about the fact that the lefties seem to get at | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
angles. Look back through the doubles, best doubles combinations | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
in the world, they all had a lefty, Fleming and McEnroe, Martina | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
Navratilova and Pam Shriver... These guys are doing extremely well. The | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
Bryan brothers, it goes on... That combination just adds so much more | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
value, a different dimension, it's great for confusing your opponent. | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
It's quite remarkable, actually, if you think just how many teams have | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
that... I am sure there are plenty of amateur club players watching, | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
left-handed, I am sure of when they play doubles the natural instinct is | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
for the left-hander to play on the left-hand side, the advantage side, | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
that is not necessarily the best way to go? As displayed here by Makarova | :02:04. | :02:20. | |
and Vesnina. Pressure, perhaps on this. | :02:21. | :02:42. | |
Good point, Dan, if you are a lefty, you don't have to play the ad site, | :02:43. | :02:51. | |
the key for that club players are there, you put yourself on the side | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
you are going to get your preferred shot more often. | :02:56. | :03:04. | |
Doesn't matter what your preferred is with Venus and Serena, sometimes, | :03:05. | :03:14. | |
the strength of Makarova is the backhand crosscourt, she is getting | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
that shot more often. We have seen Venus with two big serves down the | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
middle of the court. The key is we have a lefty playing the deuce | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
court, the forehand side, but as one of the reasons they play like that, | :03:33. | :03:35. | |
the middle of the court has both its strengths. | :03:36. | :03:46. | |
Good game here from Venus, lost her last service game, more positive in | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
this situation. Venus doesn't quite have the pace of | :03:51. | :04:09. | |
Serena on serve. It's coming from a greater height and the accuracy, | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
every bit as good, fantastic serving, 36-year-old. We are at 5-5. | :04:15. | :04:28. | |
It has been good serving all-round, actually. | :04:29. | :04:36. | |
Incredibly, 82% for these guys on screen now. | :04:37. | :05:00. | |
Had to play each other in the singles, Vesnina and Makarova. That | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
can't have been easy. Talk about how good Serena's | :05:08. | :05:30. | |
surveys, look at the stats for the year, Serena has 186 aces, 77 double | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
faults, incredible conversion difference. | :05:38. | :05:59. | |
Great athleticism for Serena to track that back and scrape that | :06:00. | :06:10. | |
smash over but it was too weak in the end, finished off well by the | :06:11. | :06:19. | |
Russians. They have won the Ladies' Doubles at Wimbledon five times. | :06:20. | :06:32. | |
First time in 2000. Then in 2002, 2008, 2009, and in 2012 they won the | :06:33. | :06:39. | |
Olympics on Centre Court. 13 Grand Slam doubles titles in total. It | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
kind of used to be the case, when they chose to play together, they | :06:45. | :06:51. | |
would win. And a bit of a scary proposition for any seeds playing in | :06:52. | :07:01. | |
the draw. They still play regularly, they don't keep the world rankings | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
up. They come in tournament is unseeded which means they could play | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
any seed in the first round. You talked about the aces Serena | :07:10. | :07:46. | |
hit, 186 aces, 77 double faults, incredible number. Venus 55 aces, 74 | :07:47. | :07:55. | |
double faults, just in the negative, totally different for Serena. | :07:56. | :08:10. | |
They make it look so simple when they get that first serve in, the | :08:11. | :08:20. | |
quality, simple pattern, they look to take the first volley. | :08:21. | :08:36. | |
That was pretty smart in the end from Venus. But all was dropping | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
fairly quickly, I thought she might actually drop it a little too much | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
but she stepped forward, always best to take those kind of shots as high | :08:50. | :08:50. | |
as possible. Was that a little walk in the park | :08:51. | :09:05. | |
for Serena? It was a stroke, no pressure at all, was there? Steely | :09:06. | :09:13. | |
look in her face today, Serena. Very cool and casual out here. | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
Tie-break it is to decide the first set in this final Ladies' Doubles | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
quarterfinal. First serve net cord kind of gives | :09:24. | :09:40. | |
the game away. They go to plan B for this. | :09:41. | :10:05. | |
Those moves at net have to be timed so well, if you go early, you give | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
the game away. Look at Venus, timed it to perfection and then takes | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
complete control. She has been the Princess of the net at the moment, | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
all over it, that is what we need to do in this tie-break. | :10:24. | :10:45. | |
Serena chucking her racket, just trying to work out which bit of it | :10:46. | :10:54. | |
that hit. Was it the strings? They all count! | :10:55. | :11:08. | |
Well... They have the mini-break, haven't they? Started off extremely | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
well. Most of the time these matches at | :11:14. | :11:24. | |
the top level are decided by just one or two points in the set and the | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
better players, generally speaking, played big points better. Some way | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
to go, yet. Or perhaps not... If Makarova cannot | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
get these to service points. Well... Talk about reactions today? | :11:38. | :12:06. | |
From Serena Williams... Everyone knows how good she is, right? One of | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
the greatest if not the greatest player of all time but it's only in | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
these kind of situations you see how good she is another department. How | :12:17. | :12:18. | |
good her reflex is our. That did voice just gets me. I would | :12:19. | :12:37. | |
love to hear him sing! -- deep voice. | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
Zarina getting it wrong. Yes, he is velvety, isn't he? Let's get it | :12:44. | :12:57. | |
on... Now is not the time for that, is it? | :12:58. | :13:07. | |
What can you do? Nothing. This is where they shine and thrive in a | :13:08. | :13:14. | |
tie-break because they can be so dominant with the serve, one good | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
returning, they can break and they can lead a charge so well, just so | :13:21. | :13:27. | |
aggressive, they can dominate. Talking about dominating, who do you | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
think the senior partner is in the combination? Who is making the | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
calls? I actually think Venus makes a lot of calls. You learn to be the | :13:39. | :13:47. | |
older sister. And she was the leader when they were younger playing, I | :13:48. | :13:49. | |
just get that sense. Great stuff from Venus and apart | :13:50. | :14:06. | |
from that, you could tell Serena to do anything and she is one player | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
capable of doing it so why not tell her? You know there is no fear | :14:12. | :14:19. | |
there. Venus has got such a keen tennis mind and that comes in handy | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
on the doubles court. They have five set points, the Williams sisters. | :14:26. | :14:33. | |
I wonder if Venus will cut loose on the return. | :14:34. | :14:46. | |
CHEERING Venus and Serena found another gear | :14:47. | :15:07. | |
in that set. And they look pretty serene, don't they? Leading 1-0 set, | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
the quarterfinal of the Ladies' Doubles. You look at the two ladies | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
and know their personalities, to me, Venus is the more communicator, | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
offering you see her out and about and in situations around people, | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
Venus is a really great, happy, lovely person, I really like the way | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
she deals with situations and I feel she can manage Serena very well, | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
just look. The columns, Vesnina and Makarova are able to get a high | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
percentage of first serves, the result not as good. | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
The Williams sisters just dominating, playing a little bit | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
heavier, consistency is deeper, enabling them to control the net a | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
little bit more than their opponents and they are going to rise in those | :16:05. | :16:11. | |
moments, under pressure. They are able to serve their way through | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
matches as well, Serena's serve, the best in the world, best action, I | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
don't think you can look past Serena Williams for another athlete that | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
has a better serve. Do you think? Absolutely not, but serve is | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
stronger than many men playing regularly on tour! Such a weapon, | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
generally speaking in doubles, you take something off that first serve, | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
the higher percentage made is more important than the speed. But when | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
you're Serena, you have the ability to keep up the pace. You keep the | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
accuracy and consistency. Hard to think what the spare needs | :16:51. | :17:53. | |
to do against the Williams sisters, they might have a game plan but it's | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
hard to come back against this pace and power. Maybe just hanging in | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
there as best they can as part of the game plan? Yes... | :18:05. | :18:11. | |
Just trying to keep high percentage of balls in the court, just trying | :18:12. | :18:19. | |
to track some of these serves down and put it that gap them but it is | :18:20. | :18:21. | |
tough. That is great play from Serena, | :18:22. | :18:56. | |
showing again the diversity and the ability to change up and think and | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
make smart choices. Great court awareness, she seems to know exactly | :19:03. | :19:05. | |
where everybody is on court and the right shot to play at the right | :19:06. | :19:13. | |
time. They will clap anything here on Court Number Two, that round of | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
applause was for the ball being returned! | :19:19. | :19:29. | |
Well played again, Venus, at the net. Little bit more like swatting a | :19:30. | :19:38. | |
fly but still effective, nonetheless. It is a packed house | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
here on Court Number Two, as you might expect, with the Williams | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
sisters on court. We take a look around the All-England Club, that is | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
Centre Court, the roof open, dry all day, much better second week and | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
that is where we are, Court Number Two... Towards the bottom of the | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
ground. She will be having a ball out here, wouldn't she? What a gag! | :20:08. | :20:33. | |
Good doubles play this, Louise. Great play from Serena, too much | :20:34. | :20:43. | |
room there. Use of Venus go to the left. Dissecting the opposing pair. | :20:44. | :21:02. | |
Got to be a little bit careful when you win the first set, your | :21:03. | :21:10. | |
confidence is high, trying to win the points quickly here. Great shot | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
from Makarova. Great serve from Vesnina. She has | :21:15. | :21:37. | |
had a great tournament. OK, she lost heavily to Serena in the singles | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
earlier today. But she is coming back having dropped out of the | :21:42. | :21:43. | |
world's top 100. The only thing that has changed, she | :21:44. | :22:00. | |
says... Is that she got married. She got married. Really? I was just | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
guessing! It just goes to prove, behind every great woman... LAUGHTER | :22:08. | :22:25. | |
is a great mother! Well, it's really dad for a Li Na Vesnina. Her dad is | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
a constant companion. So silent here on Court Number Two, | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
very respectful, good crowd. Serena threading the needle down the | :22:34. | :23:09. | |
line. Makarova at the net. Playing a bit of cat and mouse, is she going | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
to go across, faking? Serena took matters into her own hands. | :23:16. | :23:36. | |
A fifth ace. Means it is level at 1-1 games. It is a bit surprising in | :23:37. | :23:48. | |
fact, for Vesnina, she hasn't done better in Grand Slams, the fourth | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
round was her best performance and mumbled and back in 2009, almost a | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
top 20 player, you think she would have had a little bit more success. | :23:58. | :24:41. | |
Swinging volley, look how close she is to the net. You wouldn't | :24:42. | :24:51. | |
necessarily cultured, would you? No. Number one in the world. She can | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
play any shot she wants! You wouldn't necessarily coach it from | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
that position but you would certainly teach it. | :25:03. | :25:09. | |
Well done, Venus. Andre Agassi, guys like that, they brought it into | :25:10. | :25:20. | |
their game, it has just become a part of tennis now. | :25:21. | :25:48. | |
A nice change up from Vesnina. Keeping the Williams sisters honest. | :25:49. | :26:06. | |
She is not convinced but... Why not? They haven't had one for a while... | :26:07. | :26:14. | |
Well done! Got another quiz question for you... | :26:15. | :26:48. | |
Last year, who was more successful on their challengers? Men or women? | :26:49. | :26:50. | |
Women, for sure. 100%. Much more astute in their choices. | :26:51. | :27:01. | |
Their eyesight... It is a good move, twice, on her | :27:02. | :27:18. | |
forehand side, much stronger, when you are that close to the net. Can | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
you tell us the answer? Women, but only just, 0.5% in it, ladies making | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
307 challenges, 83 correct in 2015. Great shot from Vesnina, that is a | :27:30. | :27:51. | |
lot of wishful thinking, a bad conversion rate from my thinking. | :27:52. | :27:57. | |
Men made 4-5-1 challengers, 146 correct. Yes... Success rate of 27% | :27:58. | :28:04. | |
for the ladies, 26 and a half percent for the men. The conversion | :28:05. | :28:07. | |
rate on break points well, great play from both pairs, | :28:08. | :28:27. | |
somehow, the Williams sisters turned defence into attack. This is what | :28:28. | :28:38. | |
they are so good at. Speed, pace, a sense of when to dominate. That is | :28:39. | :28:41. | |
what Serena Williams is so good at. Wicked top-spin from Venus. She | :28:42. | :29:13. | |
threw the racket head up the back of the ball and checked back into the | :29:14. | :29:23. | |
body of the returner. Medard were speakers it was on the backhand side | :29:24. | :29:24. | |
for her, as a lefty. You won't see many better points | :29:25. | :29:53. | |
than that! CHEERING | :29:54. | :30:02. | |
Some of the Williams camp are on their feet. They know, even by their | :30:03. | :30:11. | |
high standards, how good that was. Venus gets herself out of a sticky | :30:12. | :30:20. | |
situation on serve. This is why doubles as a live and well, and one | :30:21. | :30:30. | |
of the best sporting events, I think. We are biased, though, aren't | :30:31. | :30:40. | |
we. Absolutely. What I love about tennis is that it has so many | :30:41. | :30:46. | |
dimensions to it. The finesse, the power, the hitting, the movement. | :30:47. | :30:52. | |
The teamwork. So many elements that come together, a kaleidoscope of | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
things you have to work on. Even kicking your leg up in the air like | :30:57. | :31:02. | |
that. Fantastic and only just missing down the line. Painful after | :31:03. | :31:12. | |
a great rally like that. And to recover quickly over disappointment, | :31:13. | :31:24. | |
look at the reaction. I love that, seeing Oracene. How many matches has | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
she seen her daughters play over the years and she still gets such | :31:29. | :31:34. | |
excitement at times. I have seen her snoozing sometimes as well! Credit | :31:35. | :31:41. | |
to Makarova and Vesnina, still very much in this. Makarova is serving | :31:42. | :31:43. | |
with new balls. It will lift. Quick assessment there | :31:44. | :32:35. | |
from Vesnina. Those decisions have to be made in fractions of a second, | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
you'll have to judge the flight and the spin of the ball. | :32:42. | :32:49. | |
Not doing the I formation here, playing the traditional way. I'm | :32:50. | :33:09. | |
glad she thinks it's funny, Venus is saying. I wonder how to use this was | :33:10. | :33:16. | |
to Venus's head? -- I wonder how close this was. Oh, it was miles | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
away, Venus! The Russian pair will have to throw | :33:22. | :34:15. | |
caution to the wind soon. That is close! | :34:16. | :34:25. | |
The ball was called out. A worthy challenge, I would have thought. A | :34:26. | :34:39. | |
couple of millimetres. It is a game of small margins. | :34:40. | :34:52. | |
Here's one of the cooler umpires onto a! -- on the tour. Not just | :34:53. | :35:02. | |
that deep velvety voice, his overall demeanour. A bit of a hipster look. | :35:03. | :35:13. | |
Too easy for Serena. She was carving up this court with angles. | :35:14. | :35:34. | |
A little bit wild. Very close to another ace. Maybe went for too much | :35:35. | :35:46. | |
on that second service but if you are going to serve a double, I guess | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
at 40-0 up it is a better time than others. | :35:54. | :36:13. | |
Look at that. Packed house. And they are being treated to some brilliant | :36:14. | :36:25. | |
doubles. I didn't think there was a good angle here. But she found one. | :36:26. | :36:41. | |
The move from Vesnina was not hugging the net tight enough and | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
that gave enough space for Serena to get the ball to dip. As we said, she | :36:47. | :36:54. | |
can pretty much do anything. She can put the ball on a string, and you | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
have to say, the way she has come to Wimbledon this year, she is feeling | :37:00. | :37:02. | |
very good about her tennis, I haven't seen too many hiccups in her | :37:03. | :37:09. | |
game, her play. She's looked very comfortable on Centre Court on most | :37:10. | :37:16. | |
occasions. I've just realised that these two have a combined age of 70! | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
That is up fair, for doubles pairing. -- that is up there. How | :37:23. | :37:31. | |
long did Lisa Raymond play doubles? Martina played until she was 50, | :37:32. | :37:39. | |
almost, but she is exceptional. That is Martina. Call me Martina is a | :37:40. | :37:46. | |
great documentary that has just been released. Good documentary on Serena | :37:47. | :37:57. | |
as well. I'm sure it is on the iPlayer. It went out on Sunday | :37:58. | :38:06. | |
night. A super stop volley. Everything they do from here on | :38:07. | :38:11. | |
in-house to be so measured, Vesnina and Makarova. They are playing to | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
stay in this set, to stay this match. | :38:16. | :38:28. | |
That is an overrule that we don't see too often, on the far side line. | :38:29. | :38:35. | |
Correct. No arguments. It goes to prove that you do not | :38:36. | :39:06. | |
have to hit the ball at 100 mph to win a point, especially on the | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
doubles court. Very clever angles and pace. Won that for the Williams | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
sisters. They are hanging in there very well. | :39:16. | :39:33. | |
That is all they can really do against Venus and Serena at the | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
moment. They have to hope they will maybe get another opportunity at | :39:39. | :39:43. | |
some point to get a break of serve, or at least take it to another | :39:44. | :39:54. | |
tie-break. That's a good start. This is the game that they have had a | :39:55. | :39:57. | |
little bit of success with, they have broken Venus before, so this is | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
the one where they would be thinking they've got a chance... They got | :40:04. | :40:09. | |
that first shot, that's positive, is working so hard to keep that ball in | :40:10. | :40:11. | |
play, Makarova. It is a smart move. Makarova did | :40:12. | :40:23. | |
enough to put Venus off that. Terrific placement, the long leave | :40:24. | :40:51. | |
creates a lot of power for Venus on that one. Challenge coming. Work to | :40:52. | :41:03. | |
do, still. This is where they wanted to put | :41:04. | :41:37. | |
themselves, Makarova and Vesnina. Where is she going to go, though. T? | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
The good one that she has been getting success on -- the big one? | :41:44. | :41:51. | |
Body. Into that left hip. You have called it. Yes, complete guesswork! | :41:52. | :42:04. | |
Another chance, this time Vesnina returning. | :42:05. | :42:19. | |
And you would not have thought it, the way the Williams sisters have | :42:20. | :42:28. | |
been serving but Makarova and Vesnina are one break up in the | :42:29. | :42:41. | |
second. SUE BARKER: we will have other results to bring you for the | :42:42. | :42:46. | |
moment, Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin are through to the final, having | :42:47. | :42:56. | |
beaten Klaasen and Ram, in four sets, then a bit 11 seats, they beat | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the previous round and they are through | :43:01. | :43:03. | |
to the final at Wimbledon. It is the first time that singles have been | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
played in the wheelchair events and Gordon Reid has started well. He has | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
been so excited about this, playing at Wimbledon in the singles, he was | :43:14. | :43:18. | |
in the Royal box on the middle Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed | :43:19. | :43:29. | |
that. He's gone through his match against Pfeifer, he won his match at | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
the Australian Open and the Murray brothers congratulated him in the | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
locker room. Three proud Scotsman. He is going well as well. We can | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
update you on the Centre Court much that we watching. The number 12 | :43:43. | :43:47. | |
seats have now gone ahead, two sets to one. Herbert and Mahut are in | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
trouble. You can watch that much on the red button. Accent we are | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
heading back to Court No three -- you can watch that match on the red | :43:59. | :44:06. | |
button but we are heading back to court in a bid to. COMMENTATOR: Lost | :44:07. | :44:15. | |
the first point on this Makarova serve. | :44:16. | :44:31. | |
Venus creating such an acute angle, easy pickings for Serena. She still | :44:32. | :44:46. | |
had to work with the, she knew she had to close down that line, you see | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
these steps are the best option for Makarova. And extended grant from | :44:52. | :45:06. | |
Serena as she over hits that. -- grunt. She will be disappointed | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
because that was an opportunity for them to lead 0-40 on the Makarova | :45:11. | :45:17. | |
serve. Looking to break back immediately, having taken the first | :45:18. | :45:24. | |
set on the tie-break. You feel as if she needs that first serve. It has | :45:25. | :45:27. | |
just deserted her. You have to wonder, this is | :45:28. | :45:49. | |
confirmation of who is the best female athlete on the planet. Serena | :45:50. | :45:57. | |
Williams. Not easy to go sideways and up. Great vertical stretch | :45:58. | :45:58. | |
there. A missed opportunity for Venus. And | :45:59. | :46:20. | |
opportunity to show her lengthening skills. Just did not quite commit to | :46:21. | :46:29. | |
it. Everyone has experienced being put off by their partner on a tennis | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
court. I think Serena was put off by Venus's attempt. | :46:35. | :46:48. | |
That is a matter of take that, that, and that! Great work from the | :46:49. | :46:59. | |
Williams sisters. They moved as one. What an intimidating sight it is | :47:00. | :47:05. | |
when these two are in full flow and approaching the net. This is where | :47:06. | :47:10. | |
the energy really increases, just see this with the Williams sisters, | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
they don't want to play three sets, they want to limit the amount of | :47:15. | :47:19. | |
time they spent on court. There is no doubt that Serena would dearly | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
love to be in the doubles final. Venus dumps are relatively | :47:27. | :47:33. | |
straightforward volley into the net. -- a relatively straightforward | :47:34. | :47:36. | |
volley. This is the quarterfinal. They would be work to do to get to | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
the final if they can come through this, but Serena of course with the | :47:42. | :47:43. | |
singles final on her mind. Another great point! Both pairs | :47:44. | :49:03. | |
contributing. We have seen so many great exchanges, haven't we? Their | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
ability to be so athletic and get into positions to get those | :49:10. | :49:17. | |
defensive shots back. Venus had a chance to really put two volleys | :49:18. | :49:24. | |
away, there, though. Now, is this an opportunity? 30-30, on the Serena | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
serve. Second serve. Oh, no, she made a brilliant move | :49:30. | :49:46. | |
across court and for the second time in this game, it's a relatively easy | :49:47. | :49:54. | |
volley into the net. Just getting a little tight, that one should have | :49:55. | :49:58. | |
been put away through the court by this mean so they were lucky to stay | :49:59. | :50:02. | |
in this rally and then she had all sorts of space to get in there, just | :50:03. | :50:08. | |
let that ball drop down, you've just got to keep the rocket moving | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
forward, you don't want to let it drop. It has brought up break point | :50:13. | :50:21. | |
for Makarova and Vesnina. Great kick-serve from Serena. But one | :50:22. | :50:30. | |
rearing up. On the backhand side of Vesnina. So difficult to control. | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
Absolutely, she plays a linear style so she likes to keep that racket | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
face flat, but when getting up nice and high. -- that one getting up | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
nice and high. This time it is the Russian pair | :50:45. | :51:04. | |
moving as one to the net. Yeah, I like that move, very positive, | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
moving in synchronicity, coming forwards. It looks good when they do | :51:09. | :51:14. | |
that. Very positive. This shot here from Makarova. | :51:15. | :51:27. | |
Such an edgy volley a from Venus. Maybe she was conscious of the two | :51:28. | :51:36. | |
previous forehand volleys that she netted, she got it over but it was | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
far too weak and the Russians capitalised. Interesting that, Dan, | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
because we've talked about the fact that Venus and Serena played very | :51:48. | :51:51. | |
little doubles. They don't get a lot of opportunities to practice their | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
doubles skills. And we are seeing a bit of Makarova and Vesnina exposing | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
the volleys of Venus. She is not able to punch them away. That one | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
bounces and gives Makarova a chance to get back in this. Serena is just | :52:06. | :52:13. | |
not able to get a racket face on it and hit a positive volley through | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
the court but when it gets a little tight and there is tension in the | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
match perhaps deep down Serena and Venus know they don't spend as much | :52:21. | :52:26. | |
time working on their volleys, deep down, punching it away, as their | :52:27. | :52:30. | |
opponents who are at their day to day, week to week, doing that and | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
working on their doubles skills. And they have been playing well. Already | :52:36. | :52:42. | |
in 2016 semifinal in Madrid, one final in Rome, and they lost in the | :52:43. | :52:47. | |
final of the French Open, Makarova and Vesnina, a quarterfinal in the | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
warm up event in Eastbourne, on the grass and they were the runners-up | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
at Wimbledon last year, losing to Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
Serving for the second set against the Williams sisters. Maybe this | :53:01. | :53:08. | |
would be a bit of revenge for Vesnina after that singles | :53:09. | :53:17. | |
semifinal. She won't get it done like that, though, will she? | :53:18. | :53:40. | |
This is the best opportunity they are going to get to try to close out | :53:41. | :53:46. | |
the set. They will not want to go into a tie-break. Vesnina can hold | :53:47. | :53:54. | |
serve we are in for a big match. -- if she can hold serve. | :53:55. | :54:10. | |
I do believe that is Elena Vesnina's husband on the right in the blue | :54:11. | :54:19. | |
shirt. A proud man, she says this is the reason why she has improved her | :54:20. | :54:21. | |
tennis. SUE BARKER:. It is not easy to | :54:22. | :54:44. | |
change the flight of the ball when it is coming past. -- Pawel | :54:45. | :54:53. | |
Tabuntsov. May be some nervy times now and the Vesnina shot. But she | :54:54. | :54:59. | |
did not panic. And crucially after a great return from Serena, putting | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
her on the back foot, she dealt with it well, better than that, she had a | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
winner. This is a bit of the thought process when she was frustrated and | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
angry with herself for not going down the line, she committed early. | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
Set point them, to level it up. That defies all physics and logic. | :55:19. | :55:35. | |
With two hands on the racket and a bit of top-spin, how did she make | :55:36. | :55:43. | |
this? This is almost Inspector Gadget, a lengthening of the arms, a | :55:44. | :55:50. | |
little flick of the wrist. How key might that be? One set point saved. | :55:51. | :56:15. | |
That was a brave second serve. Encouragement. Maybe it is needed. | :56:16. | :56:23. | |
Win this point and it is one set all. | :56:24. | :56:45. | |
Smiles all around. And don't they deserve it? We are going to a | :56:46. | :57:11. | |
decider. They are just taking a sigh of relief, they are wondering, how | :57:12. | :57:19. | |
do we get into that match and how do we win that second set. Terrific | :57:20. | :57:24. | |
performance there. Look at the Williams sisters, those numbers have | :57:25. | :57:29. | |
dropped considerably. From the first set, that's a great number of first | :57:30. | :57:37. | |
serves for the Russian pair, it's the conversion number that is solid. | :57:38. | :57:41. | |
Working really hard on their returns. I think that is the main | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
area where they have been able to just get on top in this second set, | :57:47. | :57:52. | |
the returns, the returns have really improved for Makarova and Vesnina. | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
Again, it is just the ability to stay positive under pressure, and to | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
turn this around, they had to swallow some disappointment, they | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
did not play a great tie-break in the first set but look at this | :58:08. | :58:13. | |
angle, great legs from Vesnina. I love that. Her ability to work hard, | :58:14. | :58:20. | |
stay really physical, and again, just the positivity has turned this | :58:21. | :58:25. | |
match for them. It does not matter how long you have been playing this | :58:26. | :58:30. | |
game, it does not matter how big stage it is, how many great shots | :58:31. | :58:36. | |
you have hit, when you hit one like that, the feeling is like no other. | :58:37. | :58:52. | |
For everybody. Pawel, the husband of Elena Vesnina. Sergei, his dad. It's | :58:53. | :59:04. | |
an occasion that the whole family gets immersed in. Sometimes more | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
difficult to watch than to play. Venus serving to kick off the final | :59:10. | :59:15. | |
set. I am surprised that Venus is serving first. I would have reversed | :59:16. | :59:20. | |
that. To keep the same ends, I would have had Serena serving first if I | :59:21. | :59:23. | |
was the team leader. They have moved fairly quickly to | :59:24. | :59:42. | |
30-0 so I think it was a good decision. I have been wrong before, | :59:43. | :59:52. | |
Dan. No! And Mac just the once. That is what you think. Just another | :59:53. | :59:58. | |
level of intensity and focus from Serena. She wants out of you | :59:59. | :00:04. | |
quickly. -- she wants out of here quickly. | :00:05. | :00:18. | |
Venus did a great job of keeping the ball download onto the shoelaces of | :00:19. | :00:27. | |
Vesnina. She could not control the ball. The first game of the third | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
set to the Williams sisters. I might have been wrong in that situation, | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
if she was first in the rotation, she will serve more often, as we | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
track down this match, under pressure, whose serve out of the | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
Williams sisters would you say is more susceptible to being shaky? | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
Given the fact that the nurse has been broken once, Serena Nunn. I do | :00:49. | :01:01. | |
see what you are saying. You played a lot more Ladies' Doubles than I | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
did! You never looked so good in a skirt! First serves needed for the | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
Russians. The crowd are absolutely loving this | :01:13. | :01:44. | |
match. It is a full house here, packed, great energy around, | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
everyone fully engaged. The Williams sisters are such a great draw but | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
given the fact that the Russian pair are playing so well, they are even | :01:57. | :02:05. | |
more into it. UMPIRE: | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
Miss Williams challenging on the left near sideline, ball was called | :02:08. | :02:21. | |
in. Just wide... There or two Hawk-eyes out here, Serena Williams | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
certainly has a pair! Spoken a lot about the experience of | :02:25. | :03:02. | |
the Williams sisters but Vesnina on a double scored, 12 titles over the | :03:03. | :03:04. | |
last 11 years. The only other thing that Serena | :03:05. | :03:26. | |
could have done in that point was hit the last volley because she was | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
everywhere. She covers the court. This was phenomenal, to be able to | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
get that. There was a great lob but Venus missing on the forehand | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
volley, the older sisters struggling a little. | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
That is better! She needed that. You see the difference in the way she | :03:50. | :04:00. | |
approached this volley? Tracks towards the net. Much more positive, | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
doesn't let that all drop, that is the key. | :04:06. | :04:41. | |
Just sheer talent, didn't even have to move her feet, just leans out of | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
the way to give herself a bit of room, the middle of the racket. | :04:49. | :04:49. | |
Unplayable. Not sure what she was gesturing, she | :04:50. | :05:14. | |
did not like the bounce... You get some bad answers on these courts. -- | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
bad bounces. That time the swinging top-spin | :05:20. | :05:38. | |
volley getting Serena into a spot of bother. Well played. Elena Vesnina. | :05:39. | :05:50. | |
1-1 games. Vesnina's first doubles title on the WTA Tour back in 2005. | :05:51. | :06:01. | |
She has won doubles with a number of players. And so far, five titles | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
with Makarova. Not sure that was where traffic | :06:08. | :06:22. | |
should have been directed, straight at the forehand of Venus. | :06:23. | :06:54. | |
Serena's coach... Patrick. With his game face. | :06:55. | :07:18. | |
Vesnina may be trying to do too much in that rally. Got to be a little | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
bit careful of that, putting pressure on yourself, start making | :07:26. | :07:27. | |
bad choices. Just taking her time on her serve, | :07:28. | :07:50. | |
Serena. Just a little flat-footed on that | :07:51. | :08:24. | |
occasion. On the odd occasion, when the ball is slower, she doesn't | :08:25. | :08:27. | |
sometimes quite get up into the court, gets passive. She has gifted | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
two points to her opponents. Amazing! That might have team the | :08:32. | :09:03. | |
easiest shot anyone had to play in the rally. | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
CHEERING Venus... Was everywhere! Credit to | :09:08. | :09:15. | |
Vesnina and Makarova. Good feeling after a low point, lose | :09:16. | :09:31. | |
the point, you can come up with a serve like that. 117. | :09:32. | :09:42. | |
Nice if you have got it in your locker, isn't it? Money in the bank, | :09:43. | :09:52. | |
you have got to spend it. Keep their noses in front. | :09:53. | :10:01. | |
There's been enough break rallies in this match to fill two or three | :10:02. | :10:12. | |
highlight reels. But that reaction there... Is just super! That is | :10:13. | :10:22. | |
actually a decent volley, well played to Makarova to cover that, | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
the middle ground. And then you have to deal with Serena coming forward, | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
on top of the net, she has control, a difficult shot, needs to keep | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
another step forward, just a couple of little steps, adjustment, to get | :10:38. | :10:45. | |
into a better position but great point... Giving these girls a real | :10:46. | :10:47. | |
charge. It is a pro-Williams crowd, as you | :10:48. | :11:10. | |
might expect. As it has been for so many years at Wimbledon. The Russian | :11:11. | :11:18. | |
pair winning yet more fancier on Court Number Two. | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
They are looking to go one better than they did last year. When they | :11:24. | :11:31. | |
lost in the final. They have got their work cut out. | :11:32. | :11:56. | |
Well... Good covering here. Just the understanding of where to move, | :11:57. | :12:08. | |
Serena takes off, look at the way Venus covers, perfect, plays a lot | :12:09. | :12:19. | |
of doubles. She gets a little bit more time on court for doubles. | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
Please more team tennis. Well inside the baseline to return. | :12:23. | :13:11. | |
And she just couldn't get out of the way quick enough. Good serve, it has | :13:12. | :13:16. | |
to be said. If you are going to be that close up to the service line, | :13:17. | :13:25. | |
you have got to have quick feet. You can feel the tension building. | :13:26. | :13:43. | |
Good communicating from Serena, playing extremely well, helping out | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
Venus. So important for that stress and decision-making, just to hear a | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
clear instruction and this was Serena. Good play. | :13:55. | :14:28. | |
You could see that coming. CHEERING | :14:29. | :14:37. | |
The standard is getting higher and higher in this Ladies' Doubles. This | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
is one of the best doubles matches I have seen in a long time. So many | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
points are being finished with winners. They have all brought there | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
are a games. Just good to see Serena breathing a | :14:51. | :15:13. | |
little hard, she is feeling the emotion, feeling the moment. | :15:14. | :15:35. | |
The crowd have played their part in this as well. It was packed before | :15:36. | :15:43. | |
these players came out onto Court Number Two. The Mexican wave was | :15:44. | :15:50. | |
going. Everybody in good spirits and they have been richly rewarded. | :15:51. | :15:59. | |
6:45pm. One hour and 45 played, they cannot be separated. | :16:00. | :16:08. | |
It went sideways. You can see this awkward bounce. The left to right | :16:09. | :16:25. | |
swing from Vesnina having an effect on the grass. | :16:26. | :16:40. | |
LAUGHTER grants, screams and squeals on Court Number Two. That is cute, | :16:41. | :16:48. | |
Serena looked at Venus and said, I am sorry! | :16:49. | :17:20. | |
We talked about that moment of perhaps, pressure, the miss being | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
the first in the rotation of service. I want to remind you of | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
that. It is going to be a difficult situation for Venus. | :17:33. | :17:49. | |
Really short second serve. She is not going to like how that felt, | :17:50. | :18:00. | |
coming off the racket. You heard the really big swing on that, smooth. A | :18:01. | :18:01. | |
chance. A wayward ball... She is getting away with it, Venus. | :18:02. | :18:40. | |
All they had to do was bring a little bit more pressure. She is | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
feeling it. Needed to just make those two returns. | :18:45. | :19:11. | |
CHEERING A big cheer at companies that | :19:12. | :19:23. | |
winning forehand volley. The scoreboard takes over, 3-2. | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
Playing for a lot of money. In this match alone. The losing | :19:30. | :19:41. | |
quarterfinalists share ?44,000. The losing semifinalists share ?88,000. | :19:42. | :19:51. | |
Pretty sure that neither Serena naughtiness will worry too much | :19:52. | :20:00. | |
about the prize money. Venus has amassed $33 million. In prize money | :20:01. | :20:10. | |
over her career, Serena 77 and a half million pounds... I beg your | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
pardon, dollars. A ridiculous amount of money. But I guess it's something | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
else they should be praised for. The love they have for the sport, is | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
instilled at the very early age by Richard, their dad and coach and | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
their mother but they have so obviously maintained that love of | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
the sport. Yes. Here they are at 34 and 36, playing their Hearts out to | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
make a semifinal in the Ladies' Doubles. Such great ambassadors for | :20:47. | :20:52. | |
the sport. Yes, its resilience at its best. | :20:53. | :21:08. | |
They have certainly both faced a lot of challenges in the sport with | :21:09. | :21:15. | |
injuries, Serena cutting her fit, she has had quite a few challenges. | :21:16. | :21:36. | |
Not to mention the family problems, the shooting of the sister, a | :21:37. | :21:44. | |
horrible thing for them to have to go through. And the media scrutiny. | :21:45. | :21:57. | |
Having to live in the limelight. For 15 years plus. | :21:58. | :22:09. | |
Taking a wider starting point for the second serve. Didn't serve her | :22:10. | :22:18. | |
well. Can be a little bit off-putting when you are playing a | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
first serve and you miss it from one point in the baseline and then you | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
move... Well bad extra two feet was almost the reason why she pulled | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
down into the net. Did not judge it well. | :22:33. | :22:40. | |
She has got it! CHEERING | :22:41. | :22:54. | |
It sometimes feels like Serena is trying to prove all those doubters | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
that dumping she is the greatest ever. She comes up with stuff like | :22:59. | :23:06. | |
that! They are all on this side of the court, great hands. Nice little | :23:07. | :23:08. | |
dig, nicely put away. A break point that has gone begging. | :23:09. | :23:26. | |
Good serve, been very impressed with macaroon and Vesnina, especially the | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
way they played under pressure. -- Makarova. They have been under an | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
awful lot. No... That has pushed long, she | :23:35. | :23:57. | |
knew... She would have to keep it deep to stop Venus attacking it. But | :23:58. | :24:05. | |
that was too deep. She hands the break to the Williams sisters. I was | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
just thinking, really, what was going to come back from the racket | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
of Venus, you have to focus on the job in hand, keeping the return out | :24:16. | :24:17. | |
of your mind. If you had five Aussie dollars to | :24:18. | :24:38. | |
put on this match... It has got to go WW. | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
Three aces in a row. They love it! One game away from the semifinals. | :24:44. | :25:52. | |
This match has had everything, hasn't it? It has been played at | :25:53. | :26:00. | |
such a high level. The skills that have been shown out here today, it's | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
not just about big serving and big hitting that we often see and we | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
attach a little bit to the Williams sisters, we have seen everything. | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
And it's been so enjoyable to watch but the level they have had to lift | :26:14. | :26:20. | |
after losing that second set, you sort the Williams sisters increase | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
their intensity, focus and ability to lift. It has been remarkable to | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
watch, a lot of fun, some great exchanges. Just reminded so often | :26:31. | :26:43. | |
why they have held the torch so long in women's tennis on the WTA Tour. | :26:44. | :26:55. | |
Court Number Two just four minutes away from 7pm. The 11th day's play, | :26:56. | :27:04. | |
if you count the Sunday that we have. The only place to be at | :27:05. | :27:06. | |
Wimbledon. Kind of stating the obvious. They | :27:07. | :27:44. | |
really need to stay positive, first serves in particular, help the | :27:45. | :27:46. | |
cause. The amount of reflex volleys that | :27:47. | :28:16. | |
Serena has picked up today and Venus, at times, as well. Serena has | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
just been remarkable, the glue for the Williams sisters. Outstanding. | :28:23. | :28:30. | |
Just feeling good, obviously, coming off the back of the semifinals went. | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
Sometimes when you win a singles match it makes it easier for things | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
in the doubles. Especially when the lady you beat in the singles is in | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
the doubles... That is just wide. Serena knows it. They do have three | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
challenges available. Still. Good serve. 91 miles an hour. Don't | :28:51. | :29:11. | |
know whether the line made a difference. Tough bounce, reared up, | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
straight into the torso of Venus. Such a tough shot to play, high | :29:17. | :29:52. | |
bouncing ball, very little pace on it but Serena Williams made it look | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
easy. It brings up their first match point. | :29:59. | :30:17. | |
UMPIRE: game, set, match, Miss Williams and Miss Williams. They are | :30:18. | :30:32. | |
the unseeded pair. But for most people here on Court Number Two... | :30:33. | :30:40. | |
They are the favourites. That was a truly wonderful Ladies' Doubles, one | :30:41. | :30:47. | |
by the Williams sisters, into another semifinal. Congratulations | :30:48. | :30:53. | |
to Vesnina and Makarova. For contributing as much as they did. It | :30:54. | :31:00. | |
has been a good day for Serena. Singles win and the doubles win. I | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
think we must probably feels a little bit better herself. | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
SUE BARKER: you would not bet against them winning six doubles | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
title at Wimbledon. The Williams sisters through to the last four. | :31:16. | :31:21. | |
Big crowds on Court Number Two enjoying that one and on Centre | :31:22. | :31:25. | |
Court enjoying this men's semifinals in the doubles, it is in the fifth | :31:26. | :31:34. | |
and final set. Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi are two games up in the fifth | :31:35. | :31:39. | |
set. If you want to watch that it is on the red button. We are going to | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
another one court for a Mixed Doubles, the third round and there | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
is have a Watson of Britain with her partner Kontinen, playing another 16 | :31:50. | :31:53. | |
seeds, the defending champions, Leander Paes and Martina Hingis. | :31:54. | :32:01. | |
Martina Hingis and Leander Paes are leading by one set, although Heather | :32:02. | :32:08. | |
and Henri Kontinen are leading in the second. And they have broken. | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
COMMENTATOR: You join us at a very appropriate moment, as they break | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
the serve of Leander Paes to take the lead, 4-2. Henri Kontinen from | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
Finland and Heather Watson, they were outplayed in the first set and | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
lost the first three games but they are playing a lot better now. | :32:29. | :32:39. | |
Against the defending champions who have won four of the last five Mixed | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
Doubles major titles. Last year they won everywhere except the French | :32:46. | :32:49. | |
Open at Roland Garros and this year they have won the French Open at | :32:50. | :32:51. | |
Roland Garros. In a way it was ashamed that Heather | :32:52. | :33:08. | |
and Henri made such a slow start, they were getting to know each other | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
after two walkovers in the opening rounds and they smiled and sauntered | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
onto court and quickly Paes and Hingis went into a lead, by three | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
games and that was good enough for that first set. That's a shot of how | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
the's mother, Michelle, who comes from Papua New Guinea originally. -- | :33:30. | :33:36. | |
shot of Heather Watson's mother. There we are. | :33:37. | :34:05. | |
Martina Hingis has already tasted defeat in the women's doubles on | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
this court today when she and Sania Mirza, the top seeds, lost to | :34:11. | :34:14. | |
Shvedova and Timea Babos. It has been all smiles so far from | :34:15. | :34:56. | |
Paes and Hingis, it is just starting to get serious now, Leander always | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
so opportunist on the doubles court. 43 years of age, now. That is a | :35:03. | :35:05. | |
great volley. If you were wondering why these two | :35:06. | :35:31. | |
are playing Mixed Doubles together, a man from Finland and a British | :35:32. | :35:37. | |
girl, I suspect it is to do with Henri Kontinen's coach, Chris Eaton, | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
I suspect he was the matchmaker in terms of Mixed Doubles! Or they | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
contacted each other by social media, I don't think they spoke to | :35:49. | :35:53. | |
each other before at all in terms of arranging these link ups but this | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
into get on well, the chemistry is important, you have to like your | :35:58. | :36:02. | |
partner, it is so important for the man to make the woman feel as if he | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
is not going to do everything but he is there to be extremely supportive | :36:07. | :36:16. | |
and not to tut when you miss a volley something. Both of these men | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
do that brilliantly, particularly Leander Paes because Martina can get | :36:22. | :36:23. | |
a little down on herself. Early on he was really struggling | :36:24. | :36:52. | |
with his returns, Kontinen. Suddenly he has started to make eight few. He | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
was like a bull in a china shop to start with, just taking massive cuts | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
at them. And it was Heather Watson that was steadying the ship. That is | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
one of the very few returns she has missed, this evening. | :37:11. | :37:20. | |
I did not really want him to illustrate the ball in the china | :37:21. | :37:29. | |
shop, and! Exhibit A! He has a big game, Kontinen. | :37:30. | :38:01. | |
So, the key game, now. Henri Kontinen will serve for the second | :38:02. | :38:09. | |
set. He is right on the 35 in the world in doubles and reached the | :38:10. | :38:13. | |
doubles event here with John Pierce, who once partnered Jamie Murray to | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
the final last year, they won two doubles titles together this year, | :38:20. | :38:33. | |
Kontinen and Peers. Come on, you can't have a giggle with your coach | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
when you serving for the set! Just a little hold-up. Leander Paes getting | :38:40. | :38:40. | |
a freshly strung bracket. -- racket. These two might just be kicking | :38:41. | :38:58. | |
themselves because they had great momentum coming out of that first | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
set and Kontinen and Watson did so well to stop them in their tracks. | :39:04. | :39:07. | |
You've still got to invest in this set. | :39:08. | :39:23. | |
A 124 mph ace, the days when the men would take a little pace off the | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
ball when serving to a lady have long gone. And that has not been his | :39:31. | :39:32. | |
fastest! Big serve kicking up wide to Hingis. | :39:33. | :40:45. | |
Two set points. They are challenging the call. They are having a | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
challenge, here. Game and second set, Kontinen and | :40:51. | :41:08. | |
Miss Watson. It's a terrific effort from Kontinen and Heather Watson to | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
claim that second set, having been blown away at the start of the | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
match. They have done well, also their tactics, halfway through the | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
first set they thought we have to get Leander off the centre of the | :41:23. | :41:27. | |
court. They have started taking returns down the line. They have | :41:28. | :41:31. | |
gone aerial as well. It is a different situation for Paes and | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
Hingis because normally around the world, wherever they play, they are | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
the darlings of the crowd. But there is a British player out here. And | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
everyone has had a few... A view corks popping up, that's what I is | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
there, everyone is having a nice time, this crowd will pull for | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
cover. -- that's what I said there. This crowd will be pulling for | :41:58. | :42:06. | |
Heather Watson. Much more opportunistic, they did not take all | :42:07. | :42:09. | |
the break point opportunities in the first set but and is more than that, | :42:10. | :42:14. | |
they look like a team now. In the first set it was all, hello, how are | :42:15. | :42:21. | |
you, where do you come from? Who are you? It could have been very much | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
like that. They seem to be getting on famously. Watson, so solid, this | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
will be great preparation for her at the Olympics if she plays in the | :42:31. | :42:33. | |
Mixed Doubles as well as the singles and the women's doubles. They are | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
playing one of the best teams there has ever been in Paes and Hingis. | :42:40. | :42:46. | |
Leander Paes has won this title four times. The first was back in 1999 | :42:47. | :42:52. | |
with Lisa Raymond and then with Martina Navratilova in 2003, with | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
Cara Black from Zimbabwe in 2010 and last year of course with Hingis. And | :42:58. | :43:03. | |
he is only the third man in Open tennis history which began in 1968 | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
to win all four Men's Doubles majors and all four Mixed Doubles majors. | :43:10. | :43:15. | |
The other two are Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, the Woody 's. | :43:16. | :43:24. | |
Taking a drink, the father of Leander Paes, who was a member of | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
the Indian hockey team in the 1972 Munich Olympics. They won the bronze | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
medal, as did his son in the singles competition in Atlanta, in the 1996 | :43:37. | :43:43. | |
Olympic Games. It's easy to forget what a good singles player Leander | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
was. He was of my generation and was the best junior in the world, I'm | :43:48. | :43:52. | |
pretty sure that he won the junior title here. He had a fine career. I | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
did not think he would still be playing now but he loves it. In 1990 | :43:58. | :44:05. | |
he won the junior Boys' Singles. And if he came back onto the court we | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
could talk about him even more! A vacant court with Paes and Hingis | :44:11. | :44:16. | |
limping off for a bathroom break. Heather herself a Grand Slam | :44:17. | :44:25. | |
champion in the juniors, back in 2009. Martina Hingis won the French | :44:26. | :44:38. | |
and ridiculous age of 13. It is a competition for people and 18! -- | :44:39. | :44:45. | |
she won the French junior title at the ridiculous age of 13. | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
Final set. Paes to serve. In the chair, the umpire is from Spain, you | :44:51. | :45:06. | |
cannot quite get the pronunciation of the name Paes right. Brilliant. | :45:07. | :45:38. | |
Getting his instructions from his partner. | :45:39. | :45:55. | |
Interesting, this time it is for Paes and Hingis to try to work | :45:56. | :46:02. | |
things out, the body forehand to Heather Watson, she has been | :46:03. | :46:07. | |
returning so well off a stronger side, the backhand. Of course Paes | :46:08. | :46:13. | |
and Hingis will not have known a lot about them today. -- about their | :46:14. | :46:18. | |
opponents today. formation, but she was not in the | :46:19. | :46:38. | |
standard position either. Hasn't missed many of those backhand | :46:39. | :47:10. | |
returns, Heather Watson. Know she is not eating so many, harder to pick | :47:11. | :47:16. | |
them off. And also the fact that Paes and Hingis are constantly | :47:17. | :47:19. | |
switching their positions is a distraction. Yours, partner. | :47:20. | :47:37. | |
That is a terrific early evening match to round up the court in a one | :47:38. | :47:45. | |
programme. Smiles all round for the players and in the crowd. We know | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
who you are supporting tomorrow. Roger Federer and Milos Raonic | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
first! It is funny because you have to try to relax and enjoy it and be | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
serious at the same time. I fear we are a long way from Heather and | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
Martina chatting over the coin toss, chatting about their respective | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
outfits. We now the nitty-gritty. -- we are now at the nitty-gritty. | :48:15. | :48:50. | |
Such a nightmare when you see Paes moving across, always gets in your | :48:51. | :48:57. | |
eye line, that's what he's trying to do, trying to dominate this match | :48:58. | :49:04. | |
with his movement and his personality. | :49:05. | :49:15. | |
I do not see anything to be gained by staying back behind your serve, | :49:16. | :49:26. | |
Kontinen. There is a lot more movement from the defending | :49:27. | :49:29. | |
champions than from this pair. But might be the deciding factor. -- | :49:30. | :49:33. | |
that might be the deciding factor. Brilliant. I don't know if you | :49:34. | :49:53. | |
picked this up but just before Martina hit that ball, Paes said, | :49:54. | :50:00. | |
watch your line, so she shifted immediately and as a result they won | :50:01. | :50:02. | |
the point. He is a genius. Lost his opening service game of the | :50:03. | :50:30. | |
match Kontinen and that set the tone for this first set so this break | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
point is crucial even though it is so early in the final set. | :50:35. | :50:47. | |
Seven aces from Kontinen and Watson, a couple of those contributed by | :50:48. | :50:55. | |
Heather. He was waving it goodbye, not trying | :50:56. | :51:32. | |
to get at it! These two have now learned your lesson, if you are | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
going to go at Martina at the net, not a brilliant idea, make sure the | :51:38. | :51:40. | |
ball is going right to her feet because her hands are so good. | :51:41. | :51:56. | |
A very important hold for Kontinen. He was born in Helsinki but actually | :51:57. | :52:05. | |
lives in Tallinn, in Estonia. Won ten Mixed Doubles title in | :52:06. | :52:38. | |
total, Leander Paes, all of them Grand Slam titles because it is only | :52:39. | :52:41. | |
at the majors that they play Mixed Doubles. | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
Oh! So close. This is so good for Heather. Struggled more recently in | :52:48. | :53:01. | |
singles and has not had the grass court season she would have liked | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
but being at this level playing with the best in the world, superb photo. | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
Just getting a good feeling about her tennis again. Rusher it is super | :53:12. | :53:14. | |
for her. The umpire is still saying "Pies" | :53:15. | :53:35. | |
rather than Paes. He's still thinking about his supper. Perhaps | :53:36. | :53:42. | |
we should text him. He is a fixture on the tour. Is he not often voted | :53:43. | :53:48. | |
the most handsome umpire? You might say that, I could not comment! The | :53:49. | :53:55. | |
unofficial sexiest umpire poll, I think he is top. So this is what you | :53:56. | :54:03. | |
women get up to? Who is the best looking umpire? I suspect that I | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
never qualified when I was doing it. You sense, though, as you did, that | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
these two have now got their game face on. For a set and a half this | :54:14. | :54:22. | |
was great fun. When Martina first came back it was hit and yield and | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
she did not have a lot of expectation and then she started | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
winning all these grand slam titles. I've noticed this season defending | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
the women's titles and the mixed she is a little more uptight. She is at | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
her best, it is a bonus for her playing here after all the success | :54:40. | :54:45. | |
that she has had, it is a bonus when she is relaxed. | :54:46. | :54:58. | |
Had a decent run in the women's doubles, Heather Watson, with Naomi | :54:59. | :55:02. | |
Broady, they got to the third round. It helps when you have a partner who | :55:03. | :55:21. | |
stands six foot three! This is a game that is really | :55:22. | :55:55. | |
targeting that, I would not be surprised to see Paes make a massive | :55:56. | :56:00. | |
move if Martina can make the return. Where Heather wants to start serving | :56:01. | :56:06. | |
is kick out wide to Hingis. Get it up above shoulder height to the | :56:07. | :56:16. | |
Swiss. Not really supposed to serve there! Hingis not getting her | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
return, normally she gets her return over to the tramlines. That was a | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
gamble that just about paid off. So the first round of serving | :56:26. | :57:07. | |
complete in final set. And no brakes. -- no break of serve. | :57:08. | :57:34. | |
From being quite one-sided and being outplayed, these two, this is an | :57:35. | :57:41. | |
even contest. I suspect that the result will hinge on whether Henri | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
can get these returns in court. Heather making her return. It is not | :57:47. | :58:15. | |
raining, is it? Oh, no, no! You cannot busy readers. It's not going | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
to rain on our parade. -- you can't be serious. I did hear from Carol | :58:21. | :58:28. | |
this morning. It's a possibility. What a shame. Codes are going on, | :58:29. | :58:37. | |
umbrellas are going up, the umpire is coming down -- coats are going | :58:38. | :58:45. | |
on. Is it getting slippery? That's the trouble with a grass court, as | :58:46. | :58:50. | |
soon as it starts getting wet it is like an ice rink. More and more | :58:51. | :58:56. | |
brollies going up. What a shame, with this match perfectly poised! | :58:57. | :59:01. | |
They are not going off, that is the good news. They are going to hang on | :59:02. | :59:10. | |
a little bit. It is not looking good at the moment. More and more | :59:11. | :59:16. | |
brollies. It has started to pour. It's really coming down now. | :59:17. | :59:31. | |
I wonder whether brollies had gone by the side of the court, they were | :59:32. | :59:40. | |
omnipresent, the first week. -- I wondered whether brollies had gone. | :59:41. | :59:48. | |
I think the verdict is at the moment, hang on a minute, we hope it | :59:49. | :59:54. | |
will just be a little shower. They are not bringing the covers on. It | :59:55. | :59:59. | |
would be such a shame if they had to come off right now. Also a lot of | :00:00. | :00:06. | |
the fans that had stayed, they would probably head home and call it a | :00:07. | :00:13. | |
day. Hopefully those clouds will clear, pass over us, clearly in the | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
distance clear spells, the trouble is, if the court gets damp it does | :00:21. | :00:22. | |
get very slippery. Drainage on the court is fabulous, | :00:23. | :00:39. | |
they have been baked for its Sundays, they could do with a drop | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
of water to make it through the last few days. | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
Denisa Parnell... The assistant referee or one of the assistant | :00:50. | :01:01. | |
referees... No doubt talking to Andrew Jarrett, the referee. | :01:02. | :01:28. | |
You may have picked up Denise saying we will give it another minute... | :01:29. | :01:43. | |
Denisa does this job at the Birmingham tournament a couple of | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
weeks before Wimbledon, she was on and off throughout that week. David, | :01:50. | :01:56. | |
you used to be an umpire, this brushing the court with the umpire, | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
do they teach that at referee school? In those days, we had no say | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
at all, we were told you are stopping or you are continuing. | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
CHEERING Great news, we are continuing! | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
Well... The court has been given a clean bill of health. UMPIRE: please | :02:19. | :02:26. | |
take your seats quickly, thank you. Tricky time for Leander Paes and | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
Martina Hingis to have a break. Interesting change-up from Paes, | :02:30. | :03:00. | |
took a lot of pace off that serve, a lot of top-spin. | :03:01. | :03:17. | |
So many times you have got to finish off Paes and Hingis. Brilliant! | :03:18. | :03:43. | |
Break point after the longest rally of the match. | :03:44. | :04:01. | |
It was out, Paes does not realise, he thinks he has made it but the | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
umpire has called game. Well now... The defending champions | :04:09. | :04:28. | |
inconsiderable strife. All of a sudden, Watson and Kontinen playing | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
well, super relaxed, the first time they have been in front for the | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
entire match after looking pretty much outplayed in their opening set. | :04:38. | :04:45. | |
This was the last point. Just not able to get it off Watson's account | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
for it is a world-class shot and it has been the bedrock of this new | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
fund team. Given the result of the referendum, | :04:55. | :05:23. | |
we are a new -- looking for new alliances, aren't we? Don't get all | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
political on me, David! I promise not. Gosh, that kept so low. | :05:28. | :05:35. | |
Of the two men, he has got the much bigger serve and he can serve... | :05:36. | :05:45. | |
That was 130, he can serve faster than that. Considering he was broken | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
in his opening service game, the second game of the match, he has | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
found a great rhythm and they have just been whizzing through these | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
particular games. Watch out for Leander to be | :06:00. | :06:49. | |
absolutely hyper in this game, trying to protect this serve. | :06:50. | :07:14. | |
She has been the best return on Court out here, do not give her a | :07:15. | :07:30. | |
shoulder high backhand. People didn't realise it was a | :07:31. | :07:41. | |
fault... Really imposed himself in the first | :07:42. | :08:03. | |
set. Normally he dominates and he is signalling hard now to Hingis above | :08:04. | :08:05. | |
what his intentions are. Where are you going to serve? Are | :08:06. | :08:19. | |
you going to move? They cannot go to the Watson backhand, surely... What | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
a time to come up with an ace. He is saying to her, served down the | :08:24. | :08:48. | |
centre, I am going to move to my left, we reckon. | :08:49. | :08:58. | |
CHEERING The point for a double break... | :08:59. | :09:26. | |
They cannot risk anything fancy. It is a double fault... UMPIRE: new | :09:27. | :09:37. | |
balls, please... This is remarkable, because this | :09:38. | :09:49. | |
payer haven't played much, they had to walk over is to get to the third | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
round and now... 5-2 up in the final set against the defending champions. | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
The first set was a getting to know you said, heading in for dinner, | :10:00. | :10:08. | |
they have been smiling and laughing and games complement other really | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
well. Kontinen banging the ball around all over the place and | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
Watson, so solid. And Hingis, for me, getting a little uptight, along | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
with Paes, they do not play their best tennis. Martina Hingis lost in | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
the bin's doubles on the squad at the start of the day. Come on, | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
mum... That is it! New balls, as they serve for a place | :10:34. | :10:45. | |
in the quarterfinals. Stunning! Heather doesn't have the | :10:46. | :11:25. | |
biggest serve but it's very accurate. They have hit all the | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
right spots, they have read, Hingis particularly well, with that | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
forehand return, they need to finish it here. | :11:36. | :12:05. | |
CHEERING Never say never... How appropriate! | :12:06. | :12:22. | |
Three match points. What a return! What a return! She is | :12:23. | :12:32. | |
certainly seen, never say never... What a win for Watson and Kontinen! | :12:33. | :13:21. | |
They worth 3-0 games down in the first set in about three minutes but | :13:22. | :13:44. | |
at the end of the match they have put out the defending champions. | :13:45. | :13:55. | |
And Andy Murray will not be the only Brit in championship action tomorrow | :13:56. | :14:03. | |
week as Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen will take on the American | :14:04. | :14:10. | |
Scott Lipski and his Russian partner for a place in the semifinals of the | :14:11. | :14:11. | |
Mixed Doubles. What a bonus for this number one | :14:12. | :14:27. | |
Court crowd. So as they sign somebody grabs... | :14:28. | :14:49. | |
Let's look back at the moment Watson and Kontinen sealed a famous | :14:50. | :14:59. | |
victory. -- autographs. That is lovely! | :15:00. | :15:02. | |
Yes... Even Michelle who is pretty serious when she is courtside, | :15:03. | :15:12. | |
Heather's mother, bursts into a smile and I suspect that might well | :15:13. | :15:23. | |
be Kontinen's father. Not a good day for Martina Hingis, beaten in both | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
the doubles and mixed but great champions that she and Leander are, | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
they accepted defeat gracefully. Those smiles are as broad as any you | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
will see at Wimbledon. During these championships. | :15:40. | :15:49. | |
So let's just confirm the scoreline... The reason you haven't | :15:50. | :16:01. | |
heard from Sam Smith, she has rushed to the other end of the court to | :16:02. | :16:03. | |
speak to Kontinen and Watson. Heather, Henry, many | :16:04. | :16:14. | |
congratulations, what would your expectations going out there against | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
the defending champions? Well, first of all we wanted to play together at | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
Roland Garros and didn't get the chance so this was our first match | :16:26. | :16:28. | |
together in the tournament. We were quite lucky and got a couple of | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
walkovers in the first few rounds. I really enjoyed our first match out | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
there today. What's it like playing with Heather because she literary | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
solid throughout the match. First of all the most important thing is it's | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
someone you enjoy playing with, a good person and that is why I wanted | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
to play with her, she is a cool girl and it showed that we are having fun | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
and enjoying ourselves. Both of you, many congratulations and good luck | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
for the next round. Thank you. SUE BARKER: another major shock in | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
the doubles championships, this time in the next, putting out the | :17:11. | :17:12. | |
defending champions. Never played together before they think they will | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
be playing together for some time, through to the quarterfinals. | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
LAUGHTER she was disappointed to lose that marathon to Anne Quebec in | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
the singles but Heather Watson has so much to celebrate and enjoy the | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
crowd reaction. Well done to them. Before today at Wimbledon comes at a | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
PM we had to Centre Court did see that that the final set between the | :17:40. | :17:47. | |
number one seeds against Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi. Onset in the fifth | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
and final set. Andrew Castle and Peter Fleming other commentators. | :17:52. | :18:18. | |
Nearly, struck it pretty well. You get to this stage, it's as much a | :18:19. | :19:03. | |
test of nerve as skill. Hugues-Herbert, who has served the | :19:04. | :19:19. | |
most double faults, looking good so far. | :19:20. | :19:47. | |
Not sure Herbert saw that going wrong... Huey and Mirnyi lifting | :19:48. | :20:01. | |
themselves, bouncing around on their toes. What a serve to produce! | :20:02. | :20:11. | |
Great acrobatics from Treat Huey. Come on! Look at this. | :20:12. | :21:19. | |
Frustration from Herbert. Second serve to attack. | :21:20. | :22:28. | |
The sliding serve, left-handed slider out wide, the most difficult | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
to return crosscourt. Mahut again with a blistering | :22:35. | :22:53. | |
return, we saw plenty of that at the start of the first set and here we | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
have break point for the number one seeds. 30% taken so far of their | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
chances. No... No... Break... For Herbert and | :23:05. | :23:32. | |
Mahut. A very sad way for a Huey to be broken. The number one seeds will | :23:33. | :23:39. | |
shortly serve for a place in the final, and all French final, | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
perhaps? I did not see that coming, Peter. It has not been a much of | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
great chances on anyone's serve but Huey in particular, looked pretty | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
solid. Agreed, he has been spectacular throughout this match on | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
serve. Just to come unstuck in that one game. Of course, a double fault | :24:03. | :24:11. | |
on break point... Not the way you want to go down, at least force your | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
opponents to hit a winner. Painful to sit next to your partner, no | :24:17. | :24:24. | |
apologies necessary. It must be difficult. Time is called and time | :24:25. | :24:35. | |
perhaps for Huey and Mirnyi, the responsibility will fall on Nicolas | :24:36. | :24:37. | |
Mahut to see this one out. Herbert giving no one a second | :24:38. | :26:02. | |
chance. It has been a hard and long road for the number one seeds. Just | :26:03. | :26:10. | |
over three hours out on court. And they have three match points for a | :26:11. | :26:12. | |
place in the final. Well... There is going to be a | :26:13. | :26:28. | |
challenge... And odd way to end things. We are just going to have a | :26:29. | :26:36. | |
look, first of all... It is good, their victory, the number one | :26:37. | :26:39. | |
seeds... With an ace, through to the final. And a grand match. To see | :26:40. | :26:48. | |
them there. And all French final against Julien Benneteau and Edouard | :26:49. | :26:50. | |
Roger-Vasselin. You can see how much it means to | :26:51. | :27:02. | |
Nicolas Mahut, I great singles player himself. He and Herbert will | :27:03. | :27:09. | |
contest the finals in the main's doubles. | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
SUE BARKER: that final will be on Saturday. Time for me to say goodbye | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
but Clare Balding is here with Today At Wimbledon looking at the ladies | :27:19. | :27:28. | |
semifinals today. And we look forward to tomorrow. Men's | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
semifinals day, first up on Centre Court Milos Raonic playing the best | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
tennis of his career against Roger Federer who came back against Marin | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
Cilic, how much does he have left? And it's Andy Murray up against | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
Tomas Berdych, Berdych has beaten Djokovic on Federer at Wimbledon. | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
Those are the men's semifinals tomorrow and we will be on a 12:30pm | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
on BBC Two. Until then, from me, goodbye. | :27:57. | :27:59. |